Against The Odds
by Hashmir
Summary: AU - Zim promised he wouldn't run away anymore. He would fight for everything important to him and he would return, even if things could never be the same. But, at his return, he will know time had passed too fast, not even to say Good Bye. ZADR.
1. Prologue

Warning: This is a ZADR fanfic = Zim and Dib romance. If you don't like, just don't read. I mean it.

Everything related to Invader Zim does not belong to me, otherwise the story would be far too different.

Rated: G, by the moment xp

Genre: Alternative universe. And a little of everything. In this first part we are gonna miss some humor, even getting near to depressive stuff but things will improve, some way owo;

Summary: Zim promised he wouldn't run away anymore. He would fight for everything important to him and he would return, even if things could never be the same. But, at his return, he will know time had passed too fast, not even to say Good Bye. Now, he will have to survive in an unrecognizable world in an uncertain universe, until he meet a person who will help him to keep his word.

For those who had followed this fanfic, you will notice some slight orthographic corrections I did to the prologue and the first chapter I didn't find the first time I posted them. The same way I had done some minor fixes, but the story itself is still untouched so you don't have to go back to reread it all.

This fanfic is my first and 99.9% sure the only ZADR I will ever write. I really have enjoyed the story and I hope that you can find it interesting and entertaining.

For further information about this story, I invite you to read the introduction at my profile, it's not necessary to keep with the story, though.

Especial thanks to AndaliteBandit – 6 (.net / u / 697436 / andalitebandit-6). Without her, this English version would be uncompressible.

Just for the record, there is a Spanish version of this fanfiction. You can find it here: .net /s / 5202159 / 1 / En_contra_de_las_probabilidades

Thanks.

…..

Prologue

A bip sounded in the deepest part of Zim's pak, but, as in rare occasions, he was too deep in sleep to pay it any mind. He huddled against the warm body at his side, and his mind did not catch the brief sound. The same noise sounded insistently again, but the irken eyes stayed closed as he pressed his body closer the source of the warmth in an attempt to ignore the nuisance. But after the third alert, reluctantly his eyes opened slowly though his mind was still immerged in the thick fog of old memories. Confused with the temporary readjustment he rested on his elbows, growling, and he looked into the semidarkness at the person at his side. Dib was asleep, lain down on his back, arms widespread on the bed, mouth lightly open, lenses twisted on his face, black hair messed up and his peculiar zigzagged tuff of hair placed on the pillow in a strange fold.

They fell asleep the previous night just when they laid down on the bed. They didn't even have sufficient energy to get under the covers, change their clothes or, in the irken's particular case, to take off the disguise he used in the outside world. His wig had fallen at the foot of the bed, though.

The previous day had been especially long and mentally grueling. The investigation started when Dib knew about some sightings of "shadow birds" in a rural village a few hours way from there. Much time was wasted looking in empty places and talking to the useless witnesses, testing the limits of the human's patience, but especially the irken's. Of the many aspects the irken hated about the humans, their stupidity topped his list. They seemed addicts to everything that could atrophy their minds and were glad to infect anyone they could with it. All the witnesses narrated incoherent facts and in many cases, completely out of context. At least Dib recognized, thanks to his wide experience of years as paranormal investigator that this incident was just a trap to defraud idle and ignorant tourists.

Dib now was twenty-six years old and at his young age he had earned a name and a reputation independent from his father's. Everyone knew him as the greatest field investigator of the history and not as the crazy son of the world-famous Professor Membrane.

The alarm sounded yet again, reminding him why he had woken up. Not wanting to wake his companion, Zim got up and snuck silently out of the room, carefully closing the door behind him. From his pak emerged a transmitter that positioned itself at his face level and, rubbing his tired eyes, he grumbled irritably.

- What happened? - His eyes were itchy. He hated falling asleep with his contact lenses on.

- Master, I have intercepted a signal with irken signature at the edge of this solar system – The cold, metallic voice of the base's computer answered. Zim's antennas rose up in alert and he felt a cold and bitter twisting in the bottom of his squeedly spooch.

- Specify: What kind of signature was it? - The irken asked, traces of anxiety in his voice. Whatever, whoever it was entering that system, was not good news.

- It belonged to a Red Imperial Security Team - It answered apathetic to the effect that this news had on its owner.

A wave of worry froze him, mind and body refusing to respond just now. As the wave passed, he closed his fits tightly and leaned his pak against the wall, trying to control the commotion and, especially, the rage and impotence of not being able to do anything about it. The news had struck him hard, undoubtedly. It wasn't easy to assimilate this information because, even with everything what had happened, everything that for years he had managed to obtain and the only reason that made him truly happy in all his life seemed to dissolve, maybe forever. And all that was summarized into the warm sleeping person behind the cold drywall on which he was leaning on, resting pleasantly, completely oblivious to what was happening.

Zim knew that this might happen one day, but if he had learned anything on Earth it was to have hope, that this planet was far away enough from the irken Empire, that they would leave him alone, to live HIS life.

Hope or not, he had prepared himself for the worst, he had made a decision and he should as soon as possible if he wanted to protect Dib so that at least one of them had some possibility to keep forward.

Gathering his strength together, he got up resolute and, after breathing deeply and shoving the distress to a corner in his mind until he had time to distil it, he returned to the human's room.

The room was vaguely illuminated by the first sunbeams, announcing a new day of human activities and bustles, filtering across the window's thin white curtain. Turning the sight aside, he observed that Dib had not moved from his previous position.

Zim sat down at his side, and brought his hand over the other's face to delicately caress it, examining every facial line, the texture, the ruggedness of an unshaven beard, the eerie lukewarmness of his skin and a warm, comforting sensation extended down the irken's entire body, as happened whenever he touched him. He had long ago stopped using the black, army regulation, irken gloves and his uniform was kept in the general storage at his base.

- Stop it- He reproached himself in an inaudible whisper. He couldn't prolong that moment anymore. If he didn't leave now, he just wouldn't. Zim inclined and without hesitating stole a kiss from the human, who didn't seem to notice.

Eight years ago, he wouldn't have turned around; he wouldn't doubt his own decisions and that separation wouldn't hurt at all.

He went out of the room silently, then exited the house and went directly to his base, running without looking back.

…..

On having entered, Zim leaned against the door after closing it. He was lucky to be received by silence just interrupted by the sings of the birds at the exterior and constant low buzz of the base equipment.

- Computer, what is the energy level of the voot cruiser? - He asked, thinking about other stuff he must have ready in the shortest time possible. Many of them were already prepared for this moment.

- It is loaded to 78 % of its capacity - Answered the same indifferent voice. 'Enough,' the irken thought. 'But … '

- Divert all the area disposable energy to reload it and place in it the provisions from level 8, section 3. - Ten minutes of recharge, he calculated, might be the difference between get stuck eternally in the void or the chance to get to a safe place where to he could recharge again at his leisure (or as safe as the circumstances allowed). - Change one of the security gnomes into a tree and disconnect it definitively from the base. - "Yes, master," the computer answered and outside could be heard a strange suction sound followed by another like a mass being pulled to the ground. At the end, there was a decompression sound. - Start folding every lower level. We are leaving.

- The energy required to realize the activities of recharging the cruiser and to fold the base will provoke a dramatic decrease in the current level in the area. – The base informed - This action may compromise the concealment of the base.

- Obey, you piece of transistor! Now send GIR and Mini-moose here. – He shouted, pointing angrily at the roof. Only a moment later, the buzz began to increase and a slight arhythmic tremble began to vibrate through the floor. Each of the underground levels: his private quarters, the laboratories, corridors, and stores were being folded towards the base's core.

Without wasting any more time, Zim extracted the transmitter from his pak which began to ring like an earthnoid telephone. At the other side, someone picked up, cleared their throat and a feminine voice answered sleepy:

- Hello?

- Calie-human, the moment has come. I'll leave in eight minutes. You know what to do. – Without explanation Zim concluded the call, not letting the other person the most minimal opportunity to recover from the impression, much less to answer.

GIR and Minimoose were expelled from the elevator hidden under the living room couch. GIR let out a brief, sharp shriek as he fell noisily to the floor. He quickly picked himself up and ran in his master's direction, pulling out its favorite rubber pig from its head and waving it around. The second limited itself to float next to the SIR and emitted a brief squeak once arriving at the irken's side.

- Minimoose, get into the voot cruiser and wait for me there. – Zim ordered and the small amorphous moose happily squeaked again, hovered at a pipeline entrance and got in. The tremble had gotten stronger and it was possible to listen and feel the metal plates colliding among them, under his feet. Outside, the alarms of several cars were activated as were the barks of the dogs.

- And me, master? – GIR asked, embracing affectionately its small pink toy and looking at Zim as if he were to suggest an extremely entertaining game.

- Put on your disguise – Zim ordered to which the robot obeyed after storing the rubber pig in its head. Then the disguised SIR saluted respectfully at its owner and ran happy around him, ignoring what was happening around it.

The television screen was stored into the wall, the wallpaper disappeared leaving naked gray walls and the lights began to blink. An instant later the computer announced the regression progress. The top level, where they were, was left.

- GIR! - And the SIR stopped and looked at him attentively – Let's get out - Once having said this, a dog leash came out of his pak and fell onto his hand. With the skill he had obtained throughout the years, Zim managed to put the leash on the unstill SIR.

The moment they got out, the house walls began to disintegrate in an intricate net of green light lines and these too started to disappear. At last, it was only a few thin, gray metal columns suspended a few meters above a platform which abruptly descended, leaving before them Zim's ship. It was the same process he had seen, but inversely, years ago, though the situation then was much better than the current one.

Dragging GIR, Zim took him next to the false tree where he tied him firmly. - Now, when Calie comes you will obey her in everything, understood GIR? - The SIR did a sound of joy and started running about the tree, came to a point, and began to dig the ground eagerly, found a brunch of worms and start juggling with them. Zim never got to understand why this robot did the same thing every time it was left out. The garden seemed to have been bombed. What was the fun of it?

He looked at the street and it was as deserted as when he had get there that daybreak, but he wasn't surprised. Despite of the discoveries that Dib and Calie had done, the humans were still blind to too many things. It was hard for him to accept that he had to leave Dib HERE; if he could, he would take him with him.

Without hesitating, he turned around and got into the cruiser where Mini-moose was waiting for him, floating in circles above the control pilot's seat.

A few seconds later the ship rose towards the purplish sky and was lost from sight.

This time, he had something very important lose, something that was his alone. No more Mr. Nice Irken. This time, he would take care of them once and for all!

"I'm getting back. I'm getting back." These were the last words he whispered before leaving the Earth atmosphere.

…..

Dib was huddled on his bed with a thin thread of saliva running out of his mouth, staining the pillow, when a troublesome sunbeam fell down right on his lenses, shooting a sparkle against his eyelids. Lazily, he managed to wake up and found himself alone. Generally, he was the last to wake up every morning, and Zim had a five year old kid's patience, especially when it came to waiting for him to get up. 'He might be in the room watching TV' He thought, rubbing his eyes. He yawned and got up, fixing his lenses on the bridge of his nose. Once having gone out of his room, he found an unusual silence in his home.

- Zim? - He called. No answer. Intrigued, he went down to the ground floor and call again but all was quiet. Maybe he had gone away with Calie; he was a little ashamed to admit that he was the sleepy-head of the team and Zim and Calie never got tired of nagging him about it.

He went to the kitchen and, unexpectedly, there was Calie sitting silently with a cup of coffee between her hands, looking into the dark liquid and a few tuffs of chestnut hair falling down on her face. Her mind seemed to be a million miles away. When Dib entered, she tilted lightly her head at him but neither raised her gaze nor greeted him.

- Tired, I guess. Me too - Dib commented yawning and walking to a coffee pot behind the young woman. He served coffee for himself into a cup and blew on the foggy surface. Turning round, Calie was just in the same position in which he had found her.

Inside Dib, a little voice told him something was not right. He knew her perfectly, she was a very anxious person too, not even extreme exhaustion could keep her quiet a lot of time. Maybe his perception was wrong, but he preferred to ask.

- Is something wrong, Calie? – He asked at her side, looking at her worriedly, inclining lightly to have a better view. She held the mug with a bit more of force, biting her lower lip - Calie? What's going on? - Without knowing why, Dib had a strange foreboding that assaulted him suddenly - Calie, where's Zim? – He asked and she let out a sob but tried to grasp the little remained self-control she still had. Tightening her hold on the cup, she breathed in deeply and parted her lips, a couple of tears rolling down her cheeks.

- He's gone.

Dib couldn't understand these two simple words, mainly because his brain didn't want to accept them. Not as that answer.

- H… How? - He managed to say. And his brain produced a bit more of synapse – Where did he go?

- I don't know, Dib. He called me a couple of hours ago saying he was leaving for good. He didn't give me explanations, he only … left. - Two hours?

- Why you didn't tell me? - The boy asked. Sadness, annoyance, fear, stupefaction were the feelings that started to agglomerate in his chest, painfully suffocating him in his place.

- I wanted… - And she sobbed again, scarcely controlling herself – I wanted to give you two more hours of … - And another more heart-breaking sob silenced her - Two more hours. – She could just say before start cry.

Dib couldn't believe this, why was it happening? Why? Why now? What was going on? Without thinking twice, he ran out of the place. Everything had to be a mistake, a joke. Calie must have fallen down in a coarse joke of the irken. He would find Zim in the low levels of his base wasting some of his time, waiting for him to arrive or trying to arrange anything that GIR could have broken, anything, but he had to be there!

In the kitchen, Calie couldn't hold her sadness any longer and she didn't know exactly why: For seeing Dib trying to hold on a false hope to find Zim at his base and to know that the young man's world was about to crumble? For Zim and his uncertain battle he would face from now on? Or for hiding from Dib what had happened two years ago? But no one was there to hear her or give her a shoulder where to refuge from the world and console her.

After a few minutes, Calie gathered herself and stopped crying. There was something important to do, something she had promised to do long time ago. She cleaned her face with a napkin, got up and went out of the house. She couldn't let Dib cry alone in front of a wasteland with nobody at his side, or worse, that he could unload his furry on the innocent defective robot. 'Zim, you better get this right. You own this to him.' She thought bitterly before going out and walking into the cold dawn.


	2. Chapter I Moondance

Hi, everyone! First: Sorry I took this long, I'll try to post the next chapter soon.

NOTE: Revised and corrected, too owo; Well and, obviously, posting the next chapter hasn't been as soon as I thought. What a lazy girl! Second chapter needs some details and translation to post it in both idioms. Just wait a little longer T_T

I hope you will enjoy this chapter. Any comment will be appreciated :3

Thanks again to AndaliteBandit – 6 ( www . fanfiction . net / u / 697436 / andalitebandit-6) for the English review.

**Everything related to Invader Zim does not belong to me, otherwise the story would be far too different.**

Chapter I – Moondance

" …it will revolutionize the international transport system as we know it. The company directives hope the construction of the transport routes will conclude eighteen months from today.

Specialists around the whole world agree that this will bring a new age between the three principal world regions; maybe in this way the Treaty of …"

The reporter continued eagerly praising the importance of whatever that news was about, but the boy who was in front of the television was asleep on an old and shabby sofa. But even if he was awake, he would show no interest in the events of the world and, especially, _that one_.

Then, chaos exploded on the screen and the boy's slumber broke. Lazily, he sat up growling, looking at the brilliant and blurry origin of the interruption, rubbing his left eye while his right hand looked for something around him. When he found it, he placed on his nose bridge a pair of lenses that matched perfectly to its position. Now he could see on the screen of an antiquated plasma television, an immense multitude cheering around a high and overwhelming white building in the middle of an extensive city. All those present were shouting jubilantly and, over them, there was a swarm of floating cameras, strategically positioned, aimed their lenses towards the same direction, while the reporter's voice continued giving more details about the news. Just as the shot changed from the crowd to the podium placed in the wide main entry of the building, the boy seized the television remote control and rapidly turned it off. Everyone in the world knew the person standing there, him and all those who preceded him. By now, nobody could turn on the television, open a magazine or simply go out onto the street without the influence of certain family's presence in each of the social levels.

The boy checked the hour in his watch; it was 7:20 in the morning. He still had some time to shower, get to work on time and maybe to nibble something for breakfast. Why did he fall asleep on the couch? Ah, right. The morning - evening shift in one of the several 24/7 messenger services companies plus the night shift in a bar for three days in a row was mortal for any normal person but that's how he joggled in life because, ultimately, there were not many options in which he could come out ahead, precarious though they be.

Yawning, he got up slowly and stretched his body. Several conjunctures cracked with the movement and, after releasing another yawn, he looked at the space of the sofa he had just rested his body on a few moments ago. He had the recurring feeling of having forgotten something but dismissed it.

He went to the bathroom dragging his feet and, once inside, the blurred and cracked mirror returned the image of a slender pale skinned boy, his black hair was a strange black tangle of zigzagged lines falling down backward, almost touching his shoulders and to curl at his nape. And, on the bridge of his nose, there was mounted a small black device from which two transparent micas covered his black almond-shaped eyes.

It was strange for someone to be using lenses, those days. In general, when someone was born or contracted some ocular problem, they would go to any clinic and, in the matter of one or two hours, they were out as if nothing had happened. But in his case, no operation had worked, even his own father had the same problem; it was a strange genetic mark he would have to live with the rest of his life and, probably, if he ever had children, an idea he wasn't too enthusiastic about, they would also have this imperfection.

The cold water on his skin helped him to clear his mind of the thick mist of weariness that refused to leave. He lifted his face towards the shower head, arranged in an improvised manner with special tape for wet surfaces to keep it in place. The water ran down sinuously on the skin of his back, arms and chest where it ran over some old scars, results of poorly paid and dangerous jobs he'd been forced to do. But he had more respect for his body o expose himself to even worse things that he had been offered countless times.

He didn't live a life of excitement and he was determinate to leave it like that. Now, he normally worked eight hours a day at a messenger company as delivery personnel and eight as waiter in a bar, both giving him a sufficient salary to put into savings and simultaneously not to die of starvation. Though actually, he did not need very much to survive. Money wasn't his top priority, just to be away from the people of his past was enough and he had managed to erase every trace of his existence in the last years the best he could, which turned out to be amazingly and relatively easy for someone immersed in a society where, to acquire the smallest and insignificant good, meant a risk of leaving traces of personal information.

Twenty minutes later, he was ready to leave. Wearing a long, black sleeved shirt, made of a material that kept the user at a decent temperature, dark blue jeans, red scarf around his neck and with one Mega-Toast in his mouth, he left the safety of his house. His lenses had disappeared, they attracted too much unwanted attention so now he saw the world through extremely thin contact lenses, making them less visible than the normal ones but terribly difficult to take care of, one shove in the transport or stumble and they would fall and never be found, an incident he had lived repeatedly throughout the years.

He open the house door and, scarcely a few meters away, there was a thick and tall concrete pillar, supporting a motorway line where vehicles looking like small planes with tiny wings hovered a few centimeters from the floor, running not less than two hundred fifty kilometers per hour, in perfect synchrony thanks to the computers aboard and a high and thick containment rail delimitated the traffic and any accident that could happen.

Lifting his sight, high white buildings crowned by dark vegetable green spots surrounded the zone as part of an ecological permanent program, but he couldn't avoid to comparing the sight to a strange and massive harvest of broccolis. A flock of birds crossed the sky next to long lines of air vehicles, around a perpetual galaxy of shinny lights and infinite colors announcing products, news and whatnot, and, in the sky, there was an aurora borealis, created by the city magnetic field energy generators. The sun shinned with midday intensity but, at that lower city level, only some stray rays of natural light could reach.

Turning around, he closed the door of his house with a strong tug, sending a jolt to the ruined construction and a few centimeters from his feet, a piece of brick smashed against the floor. Anyone would wonder how such a small and insignificant house, that over the pass of time kept cracking like a dry biscuit could have survived years of changes and urban remodelings. But nobody asked, in this place no one cared and didn't like questions to be asked, as casual as they were. As long as nobody got into other people's business, everything went smoothly; a place that he had found to be perfect for him.

It was getting late; he had to hurry if he did not want to run up against the first rush hour of the day in the subway.

… … … … … … … … … … … …

- Hey! Juna! - The boy listened behind him after getting to the discharge area in his work. Then, he faced a brunette girl, with a kind and happy face, dressed in a dark blue denim with a big messenger bag hung at her side with a wide "Homing Pigeon" printed on it and filled with dark packages and thin white cylinders with the company logo. It seemed disproportionate compared with its owner and he always had the sensation that the slightest trip would send the young woman noisily to the floor. - You survived, as always – The girl commented with a wide smile. - I thought you would stay asleep - She said, patting on his back.

- Me too, I woke up in time because I left the tv on, Freed. – Juna said walking through the hall, accompanying her to receive the orders of the day.

- Hey, did you see the news? – She asked filled with enthusiasm - Wow! An international transport system! I didn't think it was never gonna be anything but a myth. I wonder what the Membrane Company had to do to build it.

'At this point, who would dare contradict it? ' Juna thought tartly. He continued walking along the corridor just half listening to his companion. Though he knew very well the importance of this system of transport, he preferred that the persons around him could keep it down. In the subway and the streets, people couldn't stop making comments.

Seeing the impassiveness of her work buddy, Freed crossed her arms on her chest and pouted. - God could come to Earth and you wouldn't give a damned about it.

Juna laughed after the comment - You know I don't care about whatever happens around me. As long as I have food and a roof over my head, I am happy.

- That's why you'll never get anywhere - The young woman add, maliciously smiling at a Juna briefly fallen in hopelessness.

At the end of the hall was a wide counter stuffed with papers on one side, the other one full of packages and below it there was an opening which Freed approached and unceremonious she emptied the content of her bag. Juna clearly heard something breaking inside the packages but it was not his problem.

- Martin- Juna called from the counter to a figure moving behind a waterfall of transparent pipes that transported at dizzy speeds dozens of red, white and blue capsules – What's for today? - The figure behind the pipes turned out to be a bearded medium age man, his right hand covered by a blue glove with a line of buttons along it.

- Eh! Juna, still among the living I see – The man said jocularly behind the counter. - Give me a sec - He added, quickly finding two electrical note tablets, which he gave to each of them. - You might be young, but how the hell you stay up?

- Based on a rigorous diet based of double expresso coffees, donuts and sodas. - The boy joked, taking his respective tablet.

Freed read the screen of hers and a moment later she groaned.

- Crap! No, Martin. My deliveries are at every corner of the city.

- I am sorry, Freed. - The man answered taking a couple of adobe sized packages. - But you already know how this is organized: "All the deliveries are arranged according to the computer's judgment " - Martin and Freed said at once.

- Yes, I know. Stupid computer - She murmured - Aww … too bad. And you, lightning boy? Where did you get? - Freed asked looking over Juna's shoulder.

Juna open out the address list and, after reading them, he smiled widely. 'Ha! Jackpot!' Almost every place was closely together from there. That only meant one thing, this day he could go earlier. 'Lucky bastard' Juna heard behind him.

- Juna, let's exchange routes! And next Monday I cover you on second shift, please. – Freed implored.

- No way. I need to rest and I am sure one of your boyfriends will wait for you for a while. - He said walking towards the sending module, smiling smugly while Freed watched him with murderous eyes.

… … … … … … … … … … … … …

The afternoon was approaching closer to sunset while Juna looked at the very familiar cracks of the roof over the couch; they have always been there, growing and lengthening in all directions and didn't show mercy to the wretched cap of plaster. Maybe, some day, a piece would fall down lethally on him while he was sleeping but at that moment he didn't care much, he only wanted to lie on the furniture. Though it was not only an old shabby sofa, it was also his bed when he came tired from work (which was the majority of the times), his dining room, his favorite hacking station and, especially, _his_ shabby sofa. That piece of furniture was the only one he had bought (from second hand) for that place, everything else had been left since his former owners died long time ago.

In the morning, without knowing it, Freed had made him remember the reason why he came back to Capital City. Culpably, he had allowed himself fall in relaxation. He hadn't done much since his return. Back then, he couldn't afford the cheapest of the available rent rooms without sacrificing his savings, remembering that small house lost in the middle of the city he decided to test his luck. Inside that place, he didn't imagine there would be a security system installed, specially active and ready, but it didn't represent an obstacle to cheat the sensors. They were still active, but while nothing extraordinary occurred, he didn't have to worry.

He turned around and faced the television's dark screen. "Think, Juna. Think. Now it is a good moment to use your skills'. He murmured looking at his vague reflection on the screen. Back then, he tried to get into the Main Information Central and create a new identity from the roots, but even to him that task was like demolishing a granite wall with a rubber hammer. He closed his eyes, listening to the local silence. Maybe he might search in the network later, there had to be something useful somewhere.

The silence in the house was absolute, except for the low constant noise of the highway. But, over it, a sharp sound arose from an indefinite point, like the constant hiss of an express pot that increased worryingly every moment. Juna opened his eyes and got up of the couch. He looked for the noise's source, sharpening his ear. Just when the sound became louder and seemingly more nearby, something exploded above his house making it tremble from its foundations. Plaster fragments fell down of the roof and a layer of dust filled the air, forcing him to get out of the building, coughing strongly, covering his head with his arms.

Still drowned by the dust, once he was outside, he lifted his sight towards the top of the house; he saw a line of smoke coming from an imprecise point in the sky up to justly the center of the roof.

"My computer!" his mind shouted. Without thinking twice, he raced in and rapid and agilely went to the first floor not caring if the house fell on him. If he lost it, he'd lost his best weapon against the world.

The air remained loaded with gray dust from the most distant room in the upper hall. He sighed; whatever it was that had fallen, it hadn't on his important-belongings room. Before daring to sneak into the destroyed room, he tried to identify any suspicious noise but only debris falling on a metallic surface could be heard. It didn't seem dangerous, so cautiously he looked into the room. The dust was thicker than in the corridor, the light was tinkling phantasmagorically and in the center, just below a showy hole in the roof, there was a white capsule of refrigerator size, humbled silently and immobile on the floor.

"What the hell is that?" He whispered to himself. I didn't remember having seen something like that before and he was very well informed about those things. And how could it fall from so high? Had it fallen from a shipment vehicle? No, the shy was clear except for the smoke line.

The rational part of his mind was asking him to get rid of whatever the thing was. But the boy's instincts and curiosity fell on deaf ears to the requirements of his reason and he advanced towards the strange capsule.

Reaching his hand over, he tested the air on the surface to know if it was safe to touch it and, not feeling heat, he dared to place his palm on the capsule. It was cold, to his surprise, and after examining it closer he found it was intact, completely smooth, without any scratch or crack that could testify to the violent landing.

'How do I get this open?' Juna thought, analyzing every thin and almost imperceptible line between plates, finding a thin and small one with a strange set of symbols at one of the capsule's extremes. Just below the line of symbols there was a small screen not wider than the surface of his thumb. Passing his fingers on it, the screen glowed in a pink dark tone, a few symbols spread out and suddenly the capsule slowly opened with a decompression sound.

Taking a step backward, Juna observed that in the interior, as white as the exterior part, there was someone.

Resting on its left side, there was a thin and slender figure, almost in fetal position, completely naked. The skin was uniformly light green, it had three long black and sharp clawed fingers in every hand gathered near his face without nose, eyebrows, hair or ears. Two thin black antennas rested on its cranium. The boy cautiously got closer, no thinking in the implications of that discovery because the questions kept crowding his mind, asking for answers he couldn't know, right now.

Juna watched the creatures' gender, its thin and delicate facial features incapable to guess his gender. In its back there was installed a strange silver semispherical device connected to the capsule by several metal cables. Looking beyond the device he found a long and very marked scar that went from the shoulder it was leaned on to the hip. Juna imagined it was a disastrous and definitively painful wound.

Time went by and the creature didn't seem like to wake. Curiosity pushed him to stretch his arm and touched the strange shoulder. He was surprised, he couldn't remember anything so soft and smooth in his life; though it was slightly cold, it was a very pleasant sensation. Then his attention returned to the thin antennas and his hand carefully touched one of the tips. He withdrew the hand rapidly when creature snicked and changed position; now it was leaned on its back, as much as the device in its back allowed it.

A few seconds later, the creature's eyelids twitched and then his eyes opened slowly. They were completely smooth bright red surfaces and, in a certain light, they seemed pink. Juna felt nervous, he didn't know exactly what they were looking at, or maybe it was like earth insects that had a peripheral vision? Somehow, when they blinked, he knew at once the creature's glace was on him. The crimson eyes looked at him an instant and a slight smile was drawn on his face.

Juna fell hypnotized by the alien eyes and the smile this one had on its lips. There was something warm in them, thus he did not notice when the thin arms of the newcomer spread on his shoulders, crossing behind in his nape. He felt paralyzed when a slight tug pulled him down while the alien got uncomfortably close to his face, violating his personal space.

- Dib - The lips green whispered. ' Dib? But how …? ' In the confusion, Juna half-opened the mouth in protest but he only managed to squeek pitifully; an instant later he regretted it when the alien mouth joined his in a delicate kiss, letting the strange tongue start searching his. The human's brain short circuited, his first half-conscience reaction was to push the other away but his arms were frozen supporting him on the capsule edge and they refused to react.

"System Error. Memory reload." A metallic and grave voice could be heard saying from inside the capsule, then an electrical-like sound followed. The alien interrupted the kiss with a deep inhalation arching the back; he tightly closed his eyes with his arms still crossed behind the human's neck, receiving a torrent of information from the capsule towards his pak.

After the violent load of information, the alien breathed agitated and slowly as his mind began to analyze his current position. What was it? Shouldn't he be resting inside the capsule? Was he laid on something warm and … that was breathing? He raised the face and looked at other, being in shock with the eyes fixed on him. The visitor's face twisted in a hateful and repulsed expression and Juna, unable to help it, was pushed violently, falling noisy to the ground over the rubble from the roof.

The cables connected to the back of the alien were released rapidly. Jumping, the stranger got out of the capsule and straightening menacingly before the paralyzed human on the floor, not minding his own nudity. He ducked and pulled the boy from his shirt collar, with a strength that at first glance you wouldn't know the alien had, raising him and slamming him against the wall.

- Worthless earthling worm, you dare to touch Zim? - He shouted, venomously spitting every word on the human's face.

- I … I just, I didn't want … - Juna couldn't help babbling, what the heck he could say? He didn't do anything. Just a few seconds ago, the alien was the embodiment of tranquility and tenderness but what he had in front of him was a demon with clear intentions of killing him painfully with whatever he had in reach and those claws didn't make him feel less worried.

A bip called their attention and Juna could clearly hear the same metallic voice of a few seconds ago again.

"The target is three meters northwest, seven negative meters." Zim's thin antennas raised in alert. 'Six meters …. Seven meters … Then, this place … It seems that Calie hid it in this pigsty.' Dropping the human unconcernedly, who fell on the floor, he walked towards the capsule. Inside there was a control panel, after tapping some commands, two secret drawers were opened, inside one of them there were three black packages wrapped in a thin transparent coverage. Tearing the first wrapper and letting it fall inside the capsule, he extracted the contents and unfolded, with a strong jolt, pants that he proceeded to put on. He repeated the same movement with the other package, which turned out to be a tight, long sleeved and high neck shirt and finally, the last package contained an attire with red details that, after donning it, it covered his torso and went down like a skirt to his hips. From another drawer, he retrieved a pair of black boots and a pair of long gloves of the same color that allowed his claws to come out from the tips.

Juna stayed still and mute while the alien got dressed, he felt like a cornered mouse, any noise or false move might attract the mortal attention of the cat. But he couldn't help following each one of the stranger's movements, there was something that attracted him though given his situation it might only be fear.

Completely dressed, Zim took a small device from a corner of the capsule with a small screen in the center and he approached the small external plate Juna had touched previously passing his thumb on it. The capsule closed and began to bend rapidly until it looked amazingly similar to a normal dark gray portfolio, except for a black symbol on one of its sides, which Juna compared with the face of the irken.

Forgetting about the human completely, Zim took the portfolio and went out of the room, following the locator in his hand. In his mind, something wasn't clicking. This place didn't look alike, but the corridor, the stairs, the disposition of the quarters, even that horrible sofa were telling to him that it was the right place, but it couldn't be.

A noise took him out of his ponderings and he turned around; the human was following him at a prudent distance and now that he thought about it, he didn't seem to be very intimidated. Normally, the humans would take off running when they saw something different from them, a fact verified hundreds of times. Maybe this human was stupider than he seemed to be.

'This is so familiar,' Zim murmured, observing the surroundings while he kept following the direction the locator indicated. After passing through a wooden door half eaten away by termites, he got to the dark basement and turned the lights on. The place was completely empty; the floor was covered by a thick cap of dust and white chunks of the roof. Seeing the excessive extent of the space he knew it was, or had been, (he still had to verify it), Dib's house.

The locator guided him to the very center of the basement showing a brief message: Objective located. He stored the locator in his pak and from there he extracted a thin blue square the size of his palm, with chromed spheres in each corner. Placing it on the indicated point, he pressed a button on the lid of it. Activated, four hooks came out of the squares, digging deeply into the soil. The four spheres, hovering, separated from the square and shot powerful laser beams at the floor, then they moved, cutting the concrete floor in a perfect square. Then, they returned to their original position and producing a slight buzz, they lifted the cap of concrete and positioned it next to the space that had been left.

Without hesitating, Zim extracted from the inside an old box not bigger than a watermelon. In the interior there was a strange silver thermos of which a small antenna sprouted out. With some rapid movements he managed to open it, unfolding the inert body of a small robot.

Juna observed the whole procedure silently, full of curiosity at the strange actions of the irken. But when Zim extracted the robot from the box he wondered how he knew it would be there. How that robot got in there? Who had put it there and why?

Zim touched the metal antenna, but the robot didn't react. Growling, he made himself comfortable on the floor to manually activate the SIR.

- Who are you? Why are you here? – Zim suddenly asked, looking around him while his hands were still busy withdrawing a small metallic plate from the SIR's chest.

- Eh … Juna, I … I just live here, at the moment - Juna was startled by the sound of the irken's voice but he managed to answer even though he had the same questions himself. He defensively lifted his arms and tightened the muscles of his legs in case he had to run away.

Zim didn't care much about the human's presence, but it bothered him that he was there. Though, if Calie had followed his indications, it didn't mean that place was still _his_. By the way, where would they be? Thirty years for a human was a lot and in that period of time they could do many things, especially someone like Dib.

- Where is Dib? – The irken asked poking the old circuitry of the SIR. On the outlook, the SIR was fine, but he didn't think the deterioration could be that much, even this SIR could be in good conditions for fifty human years. Maybe the mad robot had done something improper while he was gone.

- Dib? Er … which Dib? – Confused, Juna answered. It was easy to deduce this alien had been on the Earth before but, when?

- The owner of the house, you big idiot, what other Dib? - Zim shouted, irritated.

That didn't help much either, up to that day there had been more than one person officially with that name and owners of that house. If the alien didn't know about the other Dibs then there was one option left.

- You mean Dib the first? - He answered timidly.

' First? Then … ' It didn't take him by surprise, it was logical that Dib had continued with his life. He snickered after remembering an old conversation; it seemed that Dib didn't get a baby girl, but the human-pig had not answered him.

- Whatever, where is he? – He asked again. Zim got his hand to the bottom of the SIR's inside and pressed the switch activating it, making it shine in the same cyan blue of always.

- Master! - The SIR shouted and the small but strong arms of the robot surrounded him in a mortal embrace, cutting his breath short- I missed you so much! - And he squeezed his owner's slender chest tighter - Lady Callie took me on lotsa walks, there were cameras and food, a lot of cookies! And then we went to the warehouse sometimes to play with playdough and legos and then we went to a big and white place, it was smelly and there were many persons resting and that were not waking up and then she said to me that I had to sleep too and the dragonflies took the picnic. - It ended by sticking out its tongue, idiotically looking at his owner. Yes, this was the same SIR. Gathering his strength, the irken managed to get free of the robot, inhaling strongly, trying to recover his breath.

Juna felt nervous hearing the irken's snicker but the tensed air was cut after the outburst of affection of the small robot and the maniacal stutter of it. Though it called his attention, Juna decided to respond than ask about , he knew the answer was not to be welcome. - Er … the owner of this house that you mention died a long time ago, about hundred years.

Zim was trying to control the SIR, pushing it against the floor when, amongst the commotion, he managed to listen Juna's words and GIR escaped from his hands. His brain took time to process the words but not the general meaning ' … What?' Forgetting about the SIR, Zim got up threateningly, strongly clutching the portfolio. This human was making a fool of him. Nobody did that to him!

- What did you say? – He hissed, challenging the other to trick him again.

Juna swallowed hard. He knew perfectly well that tone of voice, the one the neighborhood bullies used when someone played smart with them and the outcome would be everything less than good. That moment he regretted not having changed delivery routes with Freed when he had the opportunity. "You could have fallen asleep in an alley between deliveries. But no, you wanted to come here to rest, right? "He swallowed again and repeated himself - The owner of this house died hundred years ago.

- You lie! – The irken shouted, pointing at him accusingly and taking a step towards him.

- I don't have to lie. Dib, the first, lived until the last year of last century and this house has belonged to the Membrane family since then.

'Last century? Then, how long has it been?' Zim tightly closed his fists while a wave of rage was accumulating in his chest. But his greatest fear was that it was true. No, this was a joke!

- You lie! - He shouted with all his might - and when I find Dib, I will come for you to tear your entrails with my own claws! - He went running out of the basement, pushing the human aggressively out of his way and reached the main door. He opened it with one blow. A cold blast of wind struck him but imperturbable he looked ahead: The highway, the cars, the buildings, the people, the bright lights, this was not the Earth he expected to see. Even with the technological boom on Earth, humans didn't advanced that fast. A hologram immediately covered his appearance, disguising him as a teenage human wtih white-skin and red eyes, slightly wavy black hair tied in a pony tail, wearing the same clothes plus a dark red sack and a long necklace with the same symbol of the portfolio on it. With a high leap, the legs of his pak spread out, taking him towards the roof of the contiguous building and from there he jumped from building to building.

Juna, who barely had time to watch the irken's disguise, got to the door frame, rubbing his side, not knowing what to do. He just saw the small robot walking by his side. The small legs of the SIR turned into rockets, boosting it to quickly reach its owner.

Just when he began to reason what had just happened a big chunk of the roof fell down on the sofa and only a second later the alarms of the house activated.

'...Fuck ' – He growled and another piece fell a meter away from him.

… … … … … … … … … … … … …..

- Wait for me, master! - GIR shouted behind Zim, barely keeping his pace. Meanwhile Zim sped on, as if putting physical distance between him and that house could leave behind the alarm rolling painfully in his chest. He continue forward, jumping agilely and uninterrupted from building to building, from balcony to roof without a set course, he just want that Juna-beast as far as possible, as far he could from that damned human who had dared to touch him and lied to him.

He continued forward until his chest hurt from lack of breath and listened to the metallic steps of his companion coming to his side remaining, strangely, still. When he gathered his strength he looked around him; he was on an apartment building's top with a concrete rail that reached his hip.

It had to be a mistake, it had to. A network! The humans had to use wireless networks, yet! On the floor he placed the portfolio and after opening it, he exposed a small internal computer. And immediately he broke into a network. His first search drew up an impressive list of pages dedicated to Dib or, in general, to the Membrane family. Many of them were recent, everyone had the same date of birth of the Dib that he knew, also his death date and a summary of all his achievements in life.

He closed his fists tightly and pressed the jawbone. How the fuck it had happened? 150 years? There had to be thirty, only thirty, crap! Why? What had gone so wrong? How had he lost so much time? Frustrated, he took a deep inhalation and released a cry from the bottom of his chest, digging his claws into the floor, leaving thin but deep lines in the concrete. The cry expanded towards the air and, there, it got lost. Exhausted and conquered by reality Zim stayed silent. And now… what else? For the first time he was feeling empty and insecure of himself, he had not even felt this way when he left Irk or that distant day when he let himself be captured by Dib.

He raised his face and saw the late afternoon sky dyed in intense red and yellow tones. In the opposite direction of the sun that was shining with its particular bright golden tone, the sky turned dark blue going through endless shades that he had just seen in this planet. A fresh wind blew around him, waving gracefully his holographic hair and clothes; underneath, his antennas gratefully accepted this sensation, closing his eyes during that brief moment. He remained silent, without focusing his mind on anything especially.

He got up and looked over the rail. Lowering his sight, he looked at the street. He found few differences between the current humans and those of that far away time. They all were going and coming, each one occupied in their own business, completely foreign around them, doing the best they could to survive in the society that they themselves had created. He could give a bit of credit to the earthlings, in his absence they had managed to create a decent city but he did not want to think about the city. Actually, he didn't want to think about anything.

Zim sat down against the rail in fetal position, with his arms embracing his knees and his face buried on his arms. "Why did I come back?" He thought. Maybe he should begin with that. He knew perfectly well that Dib wouldn't be waiting for him with open arms at the entry of his home, the life they had shared together disappeared back then, it was a scene he was ready to face. But everything turned out to be worse than the worst possibility. Dib was dead, he would never see him again, time had mercilessly swallowed his dreams and the same reason that he had found to live. "Why did I come back?" He ask to himself over and over again, whispering the question as an endless mantra but the response eluded him completely and, eventually, the words themselves lost their meaning. He heard at his side GIR's sharp voice asking him "Master, are we gonna sleep here?" But Zim refused to raise his face and completely ignored the robot, he didn't have the energy to get angry, shout or any of those things he used to do.

"Anyway, what am I doing here?" He wondered mentally, looking critically around him barely lifting his face, searching for anything that could help him. The rail was occupied by a dense band of green shrubs of small red flowers. In the center of the building was an access that, looking at it better, the lock was slightly rusty and the floor was covered by dust and dead leaves, he concluded nobody or almost nobody had been in that place recently. Maybe he might be able to rest there that night without being bothered. It wouldn't be the first time he had spend the night like that. If he moved from there he might find things or places that could make him remember him and, in that moment, he would not be capable of assimilating it.

Tilting his face he saw GIR huddled near him against the railing, sucking one of his small metallic thumbs, covered with a rotten and scraped blanket, a blanket that in other times was pink with dancing monkeys printed on it. The SIR generally stored it in its head along with a quantity of other unknown objects. Zim sighed deep and nostalgically, looking at the sky; his eyelids were weighing more as the sky was getting darker. It was a long time since he had felt that exhausted. It was a fact he had to go away again; nothing kept him there anymore but, how? The capsule he had travelled in only worked if it was put into orbit and, as he noticed, it didn't have any energy left. It would take months, or a year to reload and it wasn't an appealing possibility. He should look for a place, one where nobody could find him, an isolated place, quiet and crowdless, in the city suburbs would be fine, a point of reference. He had to find and get a couple of things first like a map, food too, and also… should… might go… maybe… and not being able to help it, he closed his eyes and felt deeply asleep.

… … … … … … … … … ….

-So, this is what activated the alarms? Whatever it was, I don't think young master found it particularly funny - Said a young red-haired woman with a severe glance next to a stout aged man, grayish hair brushed backward, both dressed in uniform with long black coats, while a group of people, in cerulean suits with a shield crowned by a big silver "M" on the lapel, were entering the place carrying different analysis equipments, dispersing into the building rooms that Juna had hurriedly left only six minutes earlier – I wouldn't have guessed this possible, who would say that he was hiding in the property of his own family? - She concluded, crossed the arms on her chest and observed the strange hole in the roof. It was a miracle that the house was still standing up; if the analysis team saw it appropriate they would have to demolish the place.

- Serious mistake, do not underestimate the capacity of the Membrane family members. - The man replied, scanning the place with his eyes, searching for the smallest trace that could help them in the search - Why do you think it has been so difficult to find him over the last four years? - Then, his attention returned to the hole. It was done twenty minutes ago when the security system of the Membrane Company had caught an unknown landing inside the limits of the city, mysteriously, without being able to calculate the landing point and only ten minutes later the alarm in one of the most antique properties of the family was activated. A security camera in the place was activated, surprisingly showing the image of the boy hurriedly gathering his few belongings and, a few instants later, rushing out. Lucky for him, the general security chief of the Membrane family and company was around, along with his assistant, Nazz, and once having arrived, just three minutes ago, there was a group of investigators beginning analyses as the procedure indicated.

- We are going to see that else the team has found - The man said going out of the ruined room and walking to the ground floor. Followed by the woman, he observed the thin cracks of the walls. There were indications that a diligent hand had tried to stay the deterioration in vain. As far as he could see, there were no spots of blood in this quarter or in the living room (or what was left of it). Whatever it was that had fallen on the house didn't seem to have hurt the boy; that gave him a sigh of relief.

Around the squashed couch, the young woman observed an investigator trio gathering apparently trivial samples, such as a handkerchief tossed in the floor, an empty water bottle and some fibers of sofa, just like in a crime scene. Maybe there was too much meticulousness used in the research but to find the boy had been the principal worry of master Membrane from the moment his son was gone. What made a boy who had everything, money, prestige, _that_ last name and, especially, intelligence to leave his home from one day to another without a reason?

In one of the adjacent quarters, apparently the kitchen, a man of the team came out with a small transparent box that contained a mound of burned and completely unrecognizable remains.

- Mister Zedec, the analyses indicate master Membrane lived here for about one year - He said. Then, almost instantly as his fingers touched the center of the upper lid, it got dark, acquiring a metallic appearance. Zedec nodded slightly, allowing the other to continue with his work. 'One year? That's not good'

- Mister Membrane is going to be mad when he finds out. - The woman commented worriedly. It was known that mister Membrane had a cold control on his emotions, but everything related to his son upset him easily.

Then, from a dark corridor another investigator came at Zedec holding a small screen between the hands - Sir, in the basement there is a squared hole on the floor, it looks very fresh - He said showing him the information on the screen.

- Are there any tracks? - He asked, looking first at the results, then at another investigator who had approached him.

- No, it seems that the boy was prepared for something like that. – He answered - We haven't found anything significant in the garbage. But we are running some analysis so as not to miss anything.

It was a fact the boy was not far, but if he was prepared for any incident that could compromised his position, like this one, then the chances of finding him had diminished to almost nothing... almost. Now, all they could do was to keep vigilant for any tracks.

In the last four years, there had been three different people in his position who had done the impossible to find the boy, but they never got this close, however this was just a lucky break and even so it didn't seem like things were going to improve substantially. The boy had deceived countless security systems that the most technologically advanced company in history had implemented in, practically, all the cities of the world.

He would have to infiltrate a small group in the area and send another one to the bus and train stations if the boy decided to leave the city. Now that he thought about it, why had master Dib stayed in the Capital City of the East? Or maybe he didn't but came back? Why? He sighed and decided to put his strategy into practice. While less time wasted, it would be easier to find clues of his whereabouts.

'Where you are, Dib the Fifth? ' Zedec thought, trying to imagine where the boy might be.

At that very moment, the boy was running hurriedly through a crowd in the narrow corridors of the subway, trying to enter the line to take him as far as possible, a heavy rucksack hanging on his back and a hand grasping a dark blue cylinder.

Author's comment:

I warned you I was gonna mistreat Zim. Now, you can start hating me XD

Raga


	3. Chapter II Fighting Bravely

Warning: This is a ZADR fanfic = Zim and Dib romance. If you don't like, just don't read. I mean it.

Everything related to Invader Zim does not belong to me ;w;

Rated: T, because of some minor violent scenes xp

Genre: Alternative universe. Some angst but things will get better… somehow owo;;

Summary: Zim promised he wouldn't run away anymore. He would fight for everything important to him and he would return, even if things could never be the same. But, at his return, he will know time had passed too fast, not even to say Good Bye. Now, he will have to survive in an unrecognizable world in an uncertain universe, until he meet a person who will help him to keep his word.

Chapter II

Fighting Bravely

"Hurry! Hurry! Hurry! Get out of my way!" It didn't matter if he got to the region outskirts, by then he could find out how and when to move in Capital City. But he had to get away!

Juna run in, loudly, into the subway just in time and, leaning against the handrail, he excitedly tried to catch his breath.

"Perfect" He thought "Now everybody knew he was there!" And now, what else he needed to complete the panorama? - To get assaulted? The subway to crash and be left quadriplegic? Them, waiting for me at the exit? - Juna noticed how subtly and without sudden movements, the other passengers near him warily distanced themselves from him and more than one retreated to the next wagon. Embarrassed, the boy sat on a seat just left and kept silent. Everything was that damned, wretched, lunatic alien's fault!

- I hope he falls from the highest building - he whispered angrily, crossing his arms.

Several hours passed by and the subway was filled in the busiest stations and emptied as it neared the city outskirts. Meanwhile, the boy remained alert, without moving from his place with his face down, without thinking much about his predicament and, for a moment, was alone in the wagon.

First of all, he had to remain calm; he knew every one of the schedules and routes and knew where to go. But in any moment they would begin to register the service. In the next station he should leave and find a way to get back.

He sighed tired and frustrated ran his hands over his face.

- Everything will be fine - He said. Nothing could change what had happened - In any case, the alarms are going to turn on sooner or later - and he would have to run off. Sure, he could not have imagined the bizarre and dangerous circumstances he would have to face. – Fuck. – He didn't believe his luck.

Relaxing on the rigid seat, he looked at the tinkling lamps with no real attention, looking for a heavenly sign that could illuminate his life. He just found a moth circling around the artificial light.

And he still had to get to work that night.

XxXxXxX

It smelled good. After all, he couldn't complain. When leaving Irk in that humiliating condition, all his supplies were more than counted. Maybe that's why every snack he had eaten since that moment tasted better than the last, but that was about to end.

Between Zim's hands was a blue stick, no longer than a teaspoon, in a red wrap torned from one end and a smiling face printed on. That was the last snack Zim had from his home planet. That one may not had been his favorite flavor the day he left the Irken Empire, but he knew he would particularly enjoy it, today.

He took a first bite. The outer layer had hardened by the time but the center had a grainy and soft texture. In human terms, we could describe the taste as sweet, blackberry-like and a touch of cinnamon and cloves flavors. The room he called his was silent and a low sound came to him. He had left Dib in front of the TV at the living room (though the human was more focused on the screen of his computer) before he sneaked into his room to eat in peace the snack, sitting on the bed, his back against the wall and legs folded against his chest.

Another bite. Dib kept trying to find a process to get some kind of food compatible with his system and the two of them seemed to have found something promising. If a substitute was not found as a source of nutrients, he would last no more than one Earth year with low physical and mental activity. Though it was degrading, Zim preferred to eat processed earthling food than remain inert, waiting for his body to stop working. It was humiliating enough to hide in that ball of mud, lost in the middle of nowhere to add that shameful end.

Next bite. Speaking of Dib, in the three years he had lived with him, he had never seen the human behave in that strange way. Lately, each time they meet in the halls, rooms or at the entrance of the house, his cheeks became red, he would look away from him and began to babble. Whatever it was, after a few seconds, the human seemed to regain his composure and tried to keep going or start a conversation, as if he had not gone through such _lapsus brutus_. Was he sick? He had never seen him sick or, was this an exception to the rule? He had also the impression that Dib made up any excuse just to be at his side, but the later could be just his imagination.

A new bite. Although, come to think of it, far from feeling uncomfortably stalked by the human pig, he had come to enjoy his company. Strange. At the beginning, he couldn't stand being in the same room with him, he had considered him a complete idiot, obsessed with bizarre creatures in the deepest corners of that planet covered with acid. But something had changed at some vague point. Zim was convinced that being with humans for so long was affecting him or, with luck, his pak could be damaged.

Bite. He would have time enough to think about it.

He looked at the window and saw the heavy and constant snowfall in a dark cloudy sky. He didn't know what he hated the most, if rain or snow. If he wasn't careful enough, even after the rain he could get painfully soaked if walking around puddles on the sidewalk. But the snow could be compacted rapidly in lethal projectiles that monkey-spawn brats enjoy to throw against any clueless bystander. How was it possible for that horrible acid to be in every part of that putrid planet?

And when he tried to bite again, he only saw in his hand the empty package and, for an instant, nothing disturbed the silence of his room. That was the last skitte®, he thought still looking at the envelope. Now everything depended on how the latest test would be the next day.

Strangely enough, Zim was not alarmed and that was the problem in the past few days. Dib told him the latest test would work and for the first time, he truly believed him.

An irken, before being the perfect war machine, they were loyalty and blind obedience to the Empire. If you trust your peers, it was only because they all shared the same goal and desire; you fought and died with and for them to bring honor and glory to the empire. But, outside the battle field, the misfortunes of your comrades were cause of fun, especially if they were taller than you. That kind of thrust he was experiencing was not part of the irken nature. What could be the explanation? He was more convinced his pak must have a deep problem somewhere.

And trust ... What for? What had the Dib done to deserve his trust? It could not be just because he had left him alive, right? What else he had done? Many things that had pleased him, he couldn't hide that fact, but which one was the _one_?

All those thoughts made him feel uncomfortable. He closed his eyes and tried to push that mental tangle deep into his mind.

A few minutes of silence later, he heard the shrill voice of his SIR coming into the house like a whirlwind. A couple of hours ago, the wreched little robot had dissapeared, which was not unusual and for the cries of Dib, it seemed to have brought in a rabid possum into the house again, the human could handle the problem for sure. As for him, Zim preferred to stay there a while longer, in the company of the empty envelope.

Then he felt something poking his forehead repeatedly, GIR's voice was heard very close, perhaps too close and Zim opened his eyes. Sitting on the floor, he looked around, recognizing his surounding and remembered where and when he was. He had taken refuge all those days in a dark abandoned building near the city outskirt, near the interstate train route. To the irken's surprise, the traffic was quieter than he had expected of the archaic human technology.

Before him, the small SIR stood, dressed the same way as thirty years ago ... no, a hundred fifty years ago: An absurd green dog costume with a disproportionately large zipper throughout the chest. He had remade the old green dog costume, which had been reduced to a pitiful handful of yellow debris.

Humans were no longer deceived by the strange disguise; they had already developed commercial robots in a wide range of designs, so GIR and had no problems to move around the city with or without costume. While GIR stay quiet and stick to the primitive earthling robots role, no one would pay attention.

- Master? - Asked the SIR poking his forehead again with his small metal index – Master? The baby squirrel had huddled up. - It said sweetly and proudly spread his little arms at him, showing him a transparent bottle of purified water. Zim took it immediately and heavily stood up, snarling.

He couldn't believe it, after all that had happened he had fallen asleep on the ground without any precautions ahead; he was not even in his room!

He stretched and looked at the portfolio-capsule that had taken him to Earth, leaning on some medium-sized dark boxes, with different logos stamped on and loose metal pieces around him. There was still much to do but he had no particular hurry. Not anymore.

Through a dirty broken window he saw the sky begining to glow in a particular range of pink and orange hues. Dawn was breaking. Then, he should move on.

- Come Gir. We have another part to get. – Zim said, slightly limping toward the exit while he got covered by his holographic disguise, he opened the bottle and took a big gulp. The SIR yelp cheerily and, closely, followed his master.

XxXxXxXxX

She peaked carefully, looking for life signs in the hall but it was completely deserted, except for a paper ball on the floor and what looked like a dead cockroach. Sneaking, she advance to an access, cautiously looked inside and saw her target. Sitting a few feet away from her, there was a perfect specimen of homosapiens sitting on a plastic chair, staring down and, probably, examining the strange stains of dubious origin on the ground.

Looking a little further down, her gaze focused on the trophy. On the young hominid's lap, there was an orange bag of fried potatoes waiting to be opened. As a signal, her stomach growled, and quietly, she walked toward her prey, with a mischievous and sly smile on her face.

With extraordinary agility she stood next to the goal without making the slightest of noises and reached out subtly. Just as her fingers brushed the metal surface of the envelope and feeling sure of her victory, a slender but strong hand seized hers. Just then Juna's face turned to see her, pounting.

- Hi, Juna. – The predator said, with no traces of shame, stretching her fingertips as humanly possible. Okay, he had caught her, but that didn't mean she was going to give up.

- Not today, Freed. - Juna said. Releasing her hand, he took his bag of chips and proceeded to open it possessive.

- Aaaww... Juna, I'm hungry. - Begged the young girl - You know I always replace it the next day and, also, you know that I would have given the bag back to you if you really wanted it.

- No way. If you want food, get it on your own. – And so, he filled his mouth with a handful of potatoes, looking at her cautiously.

They were in the employees' room. There was a small table, on it there was a half full and half cold coffee maker next to a nearly empty snack dispenser. There was also an old television set on the wall.

- Come on, don't be like that. – Freed replied, folding her arms -You've been very serious in recent days, is something wrong? - A thin eyebrow arched at him, waiting for an answer.

Juna shook his head and looked down at the bag of potatoes.

- I haven't been sleeping well, that's all. Lately, there has been an underground construction near my place overnight.

Actually, Juna had taken refuge in one of the noisiest areas of the city and, in his current situation where his family's surveillance was closer, instinctively his body was on edge, any strange noise startled him in the middle of the night, waking him an average of five times a night.

Damn alien.

- Too bad - Freed answered honestly, scratching her head - Maybe you should look elsewhere for now. They will take weeks doing whatever they are building.

- It's okay. Besides, I don't have anywhere ... - But an announcement on television turned his attention on the TV screen.

"Breaking News" It began "The Cootes Commercial Corporation has reported a burglary at its facilities less than an hour ago." Juna and Freed observed a false blond haired and piercing red suited reporter on the TV. Beside her, a window was displayed broadcasting a security video. "The images captured by the security system shows two blurry shapes enter the central warehouses and take a prototype hadronic energy mini-generator.

The authorities have begun the investigations but so far they have failed to determine the way that these individuals have enter the Cootes Corporation without been detected on time. Also, they have failed to specify the method on which the thieves have managed to distort the image of the security cameras so that their identification has proved impossible. It is suspected that someone from the inside has provided access to them.

Following the disclosure of this event, the Company Smacks, CE, and Pucks Satelly have made public robberies in their facilities. Apparently the same subjects are responsible for the abductions ... "

- I though you didn't care about the news, ray-boy. – Freed said, noticing the strange interest that Juna had towards the screen.

Snapping out of trance, Juna looked up, his brain clicked on the words and his mouth drew a shy smile.

- No, it's just that I find it strange that someone - 'that's not me' he added mentally - can break through the systems and facilities of those companies just like that. – He looked closely at the video and, although the figures were blurred, he noticed the fast and fluid movements of the higher thief. He had seen them before, he was sure. Without much effort, one thought hooked up with another. Was that alien to blame?

- Yeah, very strange. – The girl commented, interrupting his train of thought - Makes you wonder how safe are our homes if people like that can get into those places - and for a moment, they stood in silence – I'm leaving. - Freed said suddenly, surprising him and she walked backwards toward the door. - I have a couple of things to do before getting back home and I don't want to miss dinner with my boyfriend. – She waved and walked away. – You already finished your work for today, you better go home or wherever, you have raccoon eye circles. Goodbye. – And she disappeared from sight.

Juna looked at the space his friend was and sighed.

The boy leaned on the old hard chair and let his mind wander briefly into the past.

A hadronic mini-generator. He hadn't heared of that thing in years. As far as he knew, a normal-sized generator could produce enough electricity for an apartment building for a month just from a handful of super-compressed carbon. At that time, the miniature version was only one of many projects being undertaken in collaboration with the Membrane Company, under the watchful supervision of his father. Just a year earlier, those generators had been installed in the most densely populated cities where magnetic field generators by themselves couldn't supply enough power. He couldn't imagine the use of that pocket generator since its applications were limitless.

He wondered what else all those mentioned companies may have in common but after a moment of unsuccessful meditation, he preferred to login directly into the police databases and find out exactly what had been taken.

XxXxXxX

The sliding door shrilled opened, letting Juna into a small room. The place was not bigger than seven square meters; it was crowded with cardboard boxes, disassembled circuits and power wires here and there. At the back, in a more orderly small area was a smooth horizontal surface built-in the wall (which turned out to be the bed), a thin dark blue cylinder on a small folding table and over the bed was a shelf where his clothes and some other personal beloggings were on.

On one hand, Juna had a couple of bags of food while the other closed, by pressing a button, the entry once he was inside.

Such places like that were known as "boxes", small area room that had become popular recently; small, inexpensive and, while not exactly comfortable, it was just what a solitary young man like him needed. Although it hurt him to spend some of his savings, he had promise to make those sacrifices only in times of emergency like the one happened last month, when the alien crash on the weak house he was hiding in. Since then he had heard nothing unusual, nothing that would particularly disturb the society.

Sitting on the bed, he took the cylinder and pressed a button on the side. One half got deployed and stretched, taking the shape of a thin screen and the other half as a keyboard. He put on the table beside him some sandwiches, a couple of apples and a bottle of water from the shopping bag and began to investigate.

The reporter had said Smacks, CE, Satelly and Pucks, right?

It wasn't the first time he had logged into the police system, by now he knew the structure of the database and, within seconds, he found the reports of the robberies and all the details. Looking further he found that there were other companies that had been victims of thieves and many of them not just once but repeatedly. He downloaded the reports and, without leaving evidence of his presence, left the system.

The list was much longer than he expected. Whoever was behind this, they had been surprisingly active. He, not even with all the knowledge he had, could do everything within such a short time. He woud need at least half a year just to prepare. And it had all started three weeks ago, about the same time he was hiding there. As he had noticed, the alien didn't even know what year they were. If he was guilty, he would have started almost from scratch. It was, frankly, surprising.

Automatic central stabilizer, titanium oxide welding base, multiple sensors, a handful of Nanocontrollers, a pair of six planes slides, super coolers composite plates, polinfraneo, a multiprotocol network communicator, an industrial rack, sheets of various plastics and metals compounds and the list went on to end with the hadronic mini-generator.

- Why does he need all that? – Recalling, that type of generator was designed for vehicle applications. What had happened to the capsule that had brought him there? - What he said his name was? Zam, Dim, Mik? - It was difficult to remember details when you were thrown against a wall. – Never mind. – He would know later.

After reading carefully the police reports, something caught his attention. It was true that the person behind these thefts had done a good job to enter, steal and escape, but not perfect. In several times, they were about to catch him, they even hurt him the last time but something that involved a curious and improbable hit of pure luck got on the way.

- Neurotic and, above that, lucky - The boy concluded - Not only that. He always has problems with the internal systems of the buildings. Ha! That's the easiest to do, I do that since eight. – He added vanity – But ... - there was something strange. The easiest but not precisely the safest way to enter those technology fortresses was breaking into the Principal Register, with infinite identities that would apply to each access. Juna couldn't do that, that's why he had to hide. By breaking into the Principal Registry he could create as new identities as he wanted, it would be impossible to find him and officially he wouldn't be a Membrane. He wouldn't have to live under the shadow of that name, anymore.

If the alien was really behind all the thefts, then even there was a way of solving his problem. The hard part would be convincing him and he felt a chill go down his spine. When they met, the alien almost ripped his guts right there, asking for his most famous ancestor who had died almost a century ago. And the kiss ... What the fuck was that? No, he really didn't have to think about it.

- I don't need more traumas in my life. – He whispered, distracted with the brightness of the keyboard.

In the city there were four other major technology companies that have not yet been attacked and, intentionally, left the Membrane off the list. Juna had not the courage or the audacity to get too close and he did not know if he would have the courage to enter there with such intentions.

Now, it was just a matter of time before those places were visited by the strange alien.

He still had a chance and he would not throw it away, not again and now he had something the alien might be interested in. But first, he needed to do something to find him. He got up and picked from the floor a small broken circuitry board. He could try with that, he would have to make some adjustments but otherwise it would be a piece of cake.

XxXxXxX

In the middle of the main river that acrossed Capital City from north to south, there was a solid building in communication with the city through a big iron bridge. A person lost in the crowd who was walking on the east side of the river, leaned over and took a stone from the ground. He tossed it at the river but his gaze didn't follow the downward course of the stone.

Later, he visited two other places, threw a paper airplane at a warehouse and a rubber ball against the wall of another building. Several streets away he took off his cap he had hid with his face. Now, Juna only had to wait. He hoped that, this time, he had some luck.

He crouched, took out his computer, placed it on his lap and quickly began to work.

XxXxXxX

One night, several days later, a signal turned on on the cylindrical computer screen which was waiting just for that moment. Juna woke up quickly with a fast breaking rush of adrenaline. When he looked at the screen, he clearly could see the alien's face disguised as human, seen from a low angle with the odd little robot to the side, on top of a tall gray building, the first place where he had placed one of the trackers. The shot changed of position, moving at ground level to the foot of the irken and with one swift movement, the shot pointed at the ground, moving rapidly with each step the irken gave.

Quickyly, Juna took a small backpack with everything he might need, including his computer and ran off.

Stoping at times, Juna checked on the computer screen the city map, a yellow dot was moving rapidly and steadily between the streets and sometimes over the buildings.

Running through the streets, going from subway line to another, the human could rapidly get near the dot, which had stopped in a street that Juna remember having previously visited one of his deliveries. A few minutes later he was there, in front of a building.

It has been years since the place was abandoned, the windows were broken, doors were precariously in place, it was completely dark inside and there was an old yellow tape with large black warning letters saying "CAUTION - BUILDING IN BAD STATE." It was, indeed, a good place to hide everything that had been stolen.

Juna took a minute to catch your breath and relax, leaning on a dirty wall covered by a thick layer of ads. Using a shirt sleeve, he wiped the sweat from his forehead and face and waited. For the first time, he thanked his work as a messenger had kept him in good shape or he would have fainted in the race.

- Something tells me this is not a good idea. – He whispered to himself.

In the distance he could hear the occasional noise of the city, the talk of the neighbors, the barking of a lonely dog and the sound of the train tracks nearby. But nothing seemed to indicate that something or someone was in the building. Breathing deeply, he stored his computer in the bag and looked timidly at the interior through a nearby window, but the darkness was impenetrable.

- I just want to be safe and sound at the end. - He begged, hoping that someone would hear his plea.

Looking around, he found a crack in a high point of the wall, big enough where he could go in. He took out from his backpack a small lamp and without much effort he went into the building and , cautiously, landed inside.

The place was in better shape than the front. The building was huge inside and any noise would cause an unwanted echo. There was garbage on the floor and on walls could be seen layers of urban illegible graffiti. Parts of the wall had collapsed over time letting in thin artificial light beams from the outside. Juna carefully observed the soil dust, there were several recent footprints.

Juna advanced stealthily, guided by the dim light of the lamp. He sneaked at the stairs, passing near a pile of garbage with his heart in his throat, waiting for something to attack him from above. Setting a foot on the first step, something suddenly pulled his ankle, giving him time just enough to say "Shit."

His body hit the hard steps and his backpack flew to one side, then he was slammed against the opposite wall where several metal bands wrapped around him, immobilizing him completely.

Juna felt lightheaded and dizzy, not to mention painful and, to worsen the situation, his contact lenses had fallen from his eyes and the world was plunged into a dense fog.

Something cyan bright came down the stairs quickly and, when it stood before him, he heard a loud voice that recognized immediately.

- Hello, mummy! – And his ears rang - Ready to surf the dunes?

Perfect, the little manic on stage.

- GIR! Stay away from the earthling pig! I hate when those sickling hobos get in! – Shouted a familiar deafening and intimidating voice at the time aggressive steps came down from the stairs.

Oh, shit! Shit! Shit!

- Let's see what dirty cockroach dared to come. - The shadowy figure approached him to a safe distance and snapping his fingers, a light blinded him. – Hey! it's you, earth worm! How did you get here? – Zim shouted, standing in front of him, snarling. Clearly Juna sense the killer gaze on him and if he had a tail, it surely would be between his legs.

"Stay calm, be calmed, if you screw this up, this psyco is gonna kill you for sure" And the boy swallowed.

- I ... Look, I didn't come to make problems. I just want you to hear me, okay?

- There is nothing you can say, stinky maggot!

- Or you can sing, I like to sing - interrupted the SIR, happily and began to sing – Chocolate sea sun, artichokes clouds shriek and the dog rolls…

Ignoring it, Juna saw something rising behind the irken and an ancient instinct told him that that he was going to die with slowly and painfully and the bloody irken was not giving him the chance!

- The security network! - He shouted Juna desperated – I can take away any obstacle of any of the companies you need to go. Do not kill me! - He shut up, curled on the floor, as well as the tapes allowed him.

Zim would not openly admit it but he was concerned, every incursion was more difficult than the last. Humans were not completely idiots; they were setting on and improving their defenses against him. He was in no condition to make mistakes and unconsciously he placed gently his hand on his right thigh. The wound on his leg was almost healed but it had left him stalled for several days. He should not underestimate the Earth artificial intelligence technology.

Juna was quiet, waiting for the dreading figure to descende upon him to destroy him. Surprisingly, whatever it was that was over the irken, it returned to its place, out of sight.

- You're really stupid. You lie to this irken, chase him and come into his territory only to lie him again?

- No, really. I can prove it. Take my computer, inside my backpack. There are several opened files you can see. They are the control charts from some companies you have been in before. I can manipulate them and do whatever I want with them.

Mistrusting, the irken eyes stared at the boy then turned and his gaze fell on the pack a few feet away.

- GIR, watch over the pig-monkey. If it moves, you can play with its eyeballs. – The SIR shrieked in joy, startling Juna and making him stay as still as possible.

Zim sized the bag and took out the computer. A few seconds later he was analyzing the information displayed on the screen. Sensors, cameras, locks, combinations, everything was there.

- This human ... - was what Zim needed. But it was very strange. No ordinary human should have that information.

- He moved! – GIR yelled.

- That's not true, you piece of garbage! – Juna shouted, twisting in his place, trying to get rid of the maniacal robot.

- GIR, you'll play with him later. We need him complete. – Zim said, removing the robot off Juna. –Well, earth beast. But what you win with this? - ZIm dropped GIR aside and it ran toward to the upper store, babbling in excitement.

- I want you to show me how to enter and modify data from the Principal Record. – He answered quickly. And an expectative silent remained for a moment.

- Is that all? - Juna nodded decisively - Pathetic, I thought you'd want something more important than that.

- You think it's nothing?

- What do you plan to take from the Record? Money, extorting people, sell information?

- Why did you come looking for Dib? - And the situation became tense between them.

Definitely that was not the question the irken was prepared to listen, now or ever. The words touched a very sensitive issue, he should be in control of himself and could not start if he allowed to be crushed by the fact that Dib was gone. He had paid a price when leaving and could not do anything about it, even now he didn't regret it. But getting back was a mistake. Period.

On second thought, there would be no problem if Zim released some frustration with the human before him. But looking at Juna's determined expression, Zim understood what the human really wanted to say. This human faces reading stuff had become much easier over the time. Neither he nor Juna had given explanations to each other. Zim just need him to build a rustic spacecraft, whatever the human would do with the record was not of his business, he wouldn't get in troubles for it. Without warning, Zim kicked the side of the human to show him a little respect.

From now you'll be my slave drone, from now on. – The irken looked at the sored human. - But you see, you can't leave just like that.

Juna saw the shadowy irken figure close to him and felt a strong, sharp but brief pain in the nape. Then the irken moved away from him.

- If you try to do any trick, your head will explode like a duck in a laundry.

The metal tapes released the human, allowing him to breathe normally.

- What you did? What is in my nape? – The boy said nervously, rubbing the area.

- Nothing but the most practical and well-known leash. A small device that will make your brain become mush if I give the order. I'll take it off when we finish. – The irken laughed, looking at the human on the ground. - I want you here tomorrow, night.

"This bastard" Juna thought bitterly, getting up painfully.

- Now answer, how did you find me? – Zim could not understand how Juna had located him when dozens of irken soldiers were looking for him with the best technology available in the universe.

- In your ankle is a little robot crawler. It only had to wait until you showed up and caught you.

Looking down, Zim found a small lizard-like robot clinging to his boot. He ripped it from its place and looked at it with hatred. That? What a shame!

He tossed the robot onto Juna's face.

- Now, get out! – Ordered Zim, he had had enough of humans and his silliness for the day.

Juna nodded vigorously. Tentative, he picked his beloggings from the floor and walked toward the exit as fast as his blurred vision allowed him. Without the lenses, getting back home would be a hell, but could not help feeling lucky to be alive, beaten but alive.

Before leaving, a doubt stopped him.

- Hey, just... what's your name? – He said, rubbing his face. Usually a fairly astute person would have left the site with the opportunity at hand but Juna felt that the question was compelling enough.

- Name? - Zim smiled and set his fists on his hips, standing proudly. - I am Zim!

XxXxXxXxX

Even at three in the morning, the city lived in a continuous pulse of activity, light and noise and, both, Juna and Zim, knew perfectly well there was no better time like this to act.

- Remind me why I'm not up there. - Zim asked indignantly. That human and his stupid plans. The metal legs of his pak held him fifteen feet above the ground, hiding in the shadows opposite the soon-to-be crime scene. "Because over here it's the builing network core and you have to go into the vault, in the basement level. You got nothing to do here." He heard from the transmitter.

Why on earth humans had built the basement access in the forth floor? Zim just could guess it was for a very stupid and ridiculous security reasons and even then, he was about to enter. – Good. Ready, earth pig?

- Ready. – Juna answered from the top of the south tower where they would attack. GIR had brought him there in a sickly zigzaging path and he expected to feel better when he returned to the ground. - Now – He said, writing a torrent of programming code lines, breaking into the building security system.

Zim's legs prompted him fast and agile at the smallest of the pair of tall, slightly irregular gray buildings. A section of the high fence around it retread, letting him come in. He immediately found the access Juna pointed out.

Meanwhile, the human noticed the irken's progress in the maze of corridors and rooms on the computer screen without losing his concentration on the task. Clear and precisely, he began to give indications to Zim about the route and dangers ahead.

- The next access is for materials transport; you will need the guard number 45 identification. – Zim, who hours earlier had obtained all the building personel information through the Principal Registry, let the memory of his pak give him the necessary data. A moment later, he was in.

Thereafter, Zim did not overlook his virtually uninterrupted progress on each store. He had a strange feeling of being surrounded by a bubble, making him invisible to all sensors, systems and surveillance cameras, just as elusive as a ghost. To collaborate with the human was not so bad after all. But until he didn't get the part on his hands, he would not call it a victory.

- Zim – Juna called from the irken's communicator - There are three guards at the end of the next hall. Turn right and go into the first room you find. - The irken followed the instructions without hesitation, finding the door a few steps ahead.

- Now, go to the window and look outside. – A few feet away, he heard a click and the window opened by itself. When he looked, Zim saw the gap that got narrower there between the two buildings and a wind waved his holographic hair.

- And what you plan me to do, human? To jump? – The irken asked, cynically.

- Almost - Juna answered, setting a tone of obviousness to your response - A few feet away is an edge. Over it is an entrance to a narrow passageway; you will find an access that goes down directly to the basement level 1. Think you can do that?

'Think you can do that?' Zim groaned, to whom the human thought he was talking to? For an irken, that was nothing. He swore that idiot would know that at the end of the day. Zim extended his pak legs again, jumped, reached the edge and entered the passageway. Later, he found himself at the entrance that would lead him to the basement.

- Use the guard 10 information. - Zim entered the data and the door opened. He walked down a short hallway, on the other end there was an opened elevator that waited for him. Zim walked in. The door opened again in a long corridor from side to side. - Go right until you see the access TR. Enter the guard 021 code - And the door opened. – The anti gravity generator is on set TR1009.B2. Just follow the path I'm going to show you. Do not step outside the white line.

The vault was completely dark. In the shadows, Zim distinguished countless shelves lined next to each other. On the roof, one at a time, a series of lamps turned on, illuminating a white line on the floor that lengthened to the left and it turned in a distant shelf.

Zim followed the white line where the last lamp was lit. Looking up he saw what he was looking for.

- I see it. – Zim informed, activating his own pak anti gravity generator to reach it.

- Perfect, Zim. – Juna could not contain his enthusiasm; they had got it without problems.

GIR surprisely jumped on the human's shoulders with a bag of popcorn between its hands. Where had it got them?

- Wow! Colored spaghetti! – The SIR said, emptying the popcorn bag on Juna's computer.

- Wait, GIR! Get off!

- Stupid SIR - Zim ignored the SIR and human's cries and took the piece.

- Zim, wait! – Too late. Several alarms were triggered. – Zim! What the fuck did you do? You shouldn't have taken it, yet!

- Why you didn't tell me before? - The cry almost break Juna's eardrum.

- I was about to tell you! Your robot distracted me! –The map began to turn red, from the point where Zim was to the rest of the building, like a tide. The system went out of control.

- Zim does not have your time!

- Not anymore! Get out of there, you big idiot! – Desperated, Juna tried to confuse the network settings, giving them some time to escape.

- Shut up, circus monkey! Do not give orders to Zim!

- Shut up, disoriented moth! Shit ... - He had made it but not in time. Now the guards were alerted and that can only mean one thing. And behind him he heard something that clenched his hair.

Zim was about to answer when a cry came from the transmitter. In no time, he understood what had happened. Three robots entered the hall where he was and jumped on him. The human would have to deal with his share while he was busy.

Holding the container under the arm, Zim quickly jumped out of the way of the nearest robot. Taking position, he focused a kick at the robot vision lenses, breaking them on impact. At the instant the other two robots approached him and being only six feet way, they were pierced by the sharp tips of the pak mechanical legs. Straightening proudly, Zim went quietly to the exit with a pedantic grin on his face. He just couldn't help to enjoy destroying things.

- I feel insulted by the security level of this place – He said at no one in particular. But when he left the cellar, his arrogance deflated in the same way his antennae fell submissively on his skull when he got surrounded by a dozen robots directly targeting at him.

Above, Juna barely had time to take his backpack without tossing his computer to run away and hide between the aeration outputs, but with the service door closed and three robots wandering around he barely had time to catch his breath. When he couldn't listen to the robots near him, he took the chance and opened the computer.

- Shit. Shit. Shit. – With the adrenalin running in his veins, his fingers typed desperately, breaking into the control system of robots. But before he could take control of them, one of them appeared, pointing a stun gun at him. Clumsy but fast enough he dodged the shot and ran as fast as he could but there was no exit. Now two robots were following him and, turning around a corner, he stopped abruptly and the sight made his heart jump.

He was cornered, in front of him there was the edge of the tower and back and right of him there were the two robots. Like a miracle, an idea suddenly appeared.

- GIR! The robots want to play! – He could just expect the SIR had heared him and its absence made him think otherwise. Just when he was getting ready to feel 500 volts going through his body, out of no where GIR jump on the nearest robot's face.

- Who am I? – The little robot shouted, holding thighly the guard robot vision cameras. The robot shot and the tips fully electrified hitted the other robot that had come near them. Juna was several feet away when he heard an explosion and he wouldn't turn around just to see.

The remaining robot appeared in front of him. Skidding, Juna turned away. He heard something hitting the wall behind his head but he kept running. The robot had failed but it was only a matter of seconds before it had the next shot ready.

A few yards ahead, he found a dark gap where he got in. He opened his computer and, quickly enough he took the remaining robots control and he gave one single order. Stay still!

Silence.

Cautiously, he left his hiding place and close there was the robot, still in its position, as a metal statue.

At the other side, Juna found the SIR playing with the broken pieces of the first two robots. GIR could behave like a small hyperactive child, but properly used, it could be really useful. And dangerous.

- GIR, let's go! - Juna ordered.

- Is the game over? Betty said she can wait for the mice. – The SIR said innocently.

- Yes, GIR. It's over. Now we gonna to play "Where is Zim?" - The SIR cried of joy and its twisted mind happily accepted the new proposal.

Number disadvantage could not cope with Zim's battle experience and innate destructive abilities. These robots might be a mortal danger to a normal human: They were strong, heavy and fast for their size, but an elite irken such as him had no problems in destroying them individually. Even without a pak, the work alone would just take more time. The problem was that as soon as he finished with a group of robots, another one appeared to replace it.

Dodge. Jump. Bringing down. Break. The irken's concentration was focused only on the fight and didn't drop the package under his arm. It took him a minute to realize that the robots had ceased to attack and now they were static in their places.

Taking a second to catch his breath, he growled.

- Dirty disgraceful human! - The transmitter got activated. – You damned imbecil despicable human swine! Where the fuck are you? Once I get my hands on ...!

Juna, from his spot, hesitated to answer but it would not be the smartest or convenient. Relatively.

- Yes, Zim?

- Give Zim the way out, NOW! And no more surprises!

Juna swallowed hard and obeyed the order quickly. For the first time, he wished with all his heart to see the dawn again.

XxXxXxX

Juna and Zim came crashing into a damp and dark alley and stay silent. Several sirens approached and departed from there, getting lost in the city's chaos. In the distance, some flames could still be seen at the top of the building. A few moments later GIR disguised came in, hopping happily from the entrance at them, with a popsicle in its hand.

Turning his face, Juna saw the irken holding the reward of that mad day. The simple and small size of the box didn't seem to justify the mess they had left behind but it contained one of the most important parts for the irken ship.

Juna bitterly sighed. Everything was screwed, he had spoiled it all. The irken was going to throw him away like garbage if he didn't kill him first.

In silence, Zim opened the box and pulled out a semi-spherical piece, carelessly throwing the box away. From his pak, a cable came out, which put on his free hand a small square and he inserted it in a dark hole in the piece. A hologram was displayed, showing a series of binary data the irken easily understood. The information seemed to have satisfied him, he removed the square and the pak stored it again.

- GIR, open your head. – The irken ordered.

The SIR, who sniffed something in a corner of the alley, answered at his master's call attentively.

- Yes, master! –Answered the little robot, with the same joyful out bust as ever. The costume retreated, leaving his head uncovered and it opened up.

- For Irk's sake, GIR! What the fuck is that? – Zim said disgusted watching the mysterious content, protectively holding the piece with his arms. From his position, Juna could not see it but he was convinced that he could live without knowing. - Forget it, I better carry it myself. - The irken said.

Juna got up slowly. Without adrenaline, his body gave him the blows bill he had received. His legs ached, especially his right thigh and back, and a stronge migraine was coming right ahead.

Zim looked at the fire and then at Juna. It was the first time he had faced Earth robot guards, they were far from those used in the irken military but they were not easy, neither. Much less in packs. If it wasn't for the human, he wouldn't have survived without a scratch. Some way he knew that the day he had to break into the Membrane Company, the Principal Data Registry by itself wouldn't be enough. For the moment, he had to keep the human.

- See you in four days, human pig. Zim wants you at his place before noon.

- How? – Juna asked, smiling like a fool. Zim had said what he said? No, he just could not believe it.

Zim rolled his eyes in exasperation, but repeated.

- Zim said "in four days, before noon". Now, go away, you idiot. Zim wants to see you no more. - Without further explanation, Zim walked toward the exit of the alley.

There was still hope! Juna's mind shouted. Everything was going perfectly. But ...

- Emm… Zim? - What the hell was he doing? That was the moment to run out from there, retreat in his _box_ and thank to be there. – I think we should hurry; someone will relate the stolen parts and start protecting the remaining ones.

- Ha! Do not be silly - The irken answered, amused by the absurd idea - If you are experts at something is to deny the obvious.

- I'm sure my ... - He was about to say 'father' but managed to change the word in time - intuition is correct. Someone smart enough will notice.

- Nobody will - He said, looking contemptuously at the human.

- Hey, I did realize - Juna pointed out.

- You give yourself too much credit. And it was because I fell on your primitive excuse of a burrow. –Zim replied, crossing his arms around the piece. - Before noon. Zim does not accept delays.

Juna smiled to himself, perhaps what awaited for him was chaos and disaster but he had succeeded. Even with all the previous mess, he was closer to fulfilling his goal. The deal was still on.

- Ah! One last thing, human slug.

Surprisingly, Juna felt a pain like never before in the stomach that took his breath away, forcing him to bend and fall to the ground.

- Zim is going to explain the situation for you, human pig. – The irken said, looking disapprovingly from above, rubbing his left fist. – You, humans, are an inferior and silly species, but I know your pathetic capacities and your great limitations. The deal is that Zim will help you in exchange of information about how and where to get what he wants and to follow each one of his orders and today they were to inform him everything that he was going to face in there from the beginning. The next time something like this happens, Zim will be your biggest problem. So learn your place, on the ground. GIR! Let's go! - He ordered at the SIR and it cheerfully said goodbye to Juna.

Turning around, Zim and GIR left, getting lost in the perpetual darkness created by the tall buildings and poor lighting.

"Charming. Fucking bastard." Juna bitterly thought, still with his arms around his stomach, curled up on the floor.

But he was still alive. So much painfully alive.

…

Author's comment:

Ok, before anything happens: I'M SO SORRY I TOOK SO LONG ;w;

I wanted to post this chapter 'til December along with the third one but I better do it now, I feel too ashamed of myself to delay it.

Sorry about some mistakes I did with the translation, right now I don't have a b-reader so, please, if you see my grammatical horrors, point them out ;w;

The good news... yes, just good new xp It's that in December chapter III will be ready! You won't have to wait months to read the continuation owo;;

Soon there are gonna be some deep changes in my life that will give me more time to write the story, yay! =D

_About this chapter:_

_Well, Zim may not have nothing to smile about, at least he can see a light of hope at the end of the tunnel. So does Juna. There are chances that they can get what they want, working together._

_We can just hope that light of hope doesn't turn out to be a flamethrower._

Raga


	4. Chapter III Calm Before the Storm

Warning: This is a ZADR fanfic = Zim and Dib romance. If you don't like, just don't read. I mean it.

Everything related to Invader Zim does not belong to me ;w;

Rated: T, because of some minor violent scenes xp

Genre: Alternative universe. Some angst but things will get better… somehow owo;;

Summary: Zim promised he wouldn't run away anymore. He would fight for everything important to him and he would return, even if things could never be the same. But, at his return, he will know time had passed too fast, not even to say Good Bye. Now, he will have to survive in an unrecognizable world in an uncertain universe, until he meet a person who will help him to keep his word.

****First of all, I need to make something clear. In this chapter, time will be measured mainly in irken years. Just to make the conversion easier make 1 irken year = 10 earth years, you will notice when to do it. Ok, that's it. Enjoy :p****

Chapter III

Calm Before the Storm

Sighing tiredly, Juna passed his arm over his face, taking away the thick sweat drops off his skin. Even under the shade, the summer heat was becoming irremediably unbearable. He looked at the irken who, just like him, was busy, sitting on the floor and focused in assembling the gigantic metallic puzzle they hope it would turn into a spaceship. Meanwhile, Juna's eyes felt heavy and he knew his dexterity had left the building without him.

He had been working since the previous morning on the assembly, taking not even a moment to rest. If he was hungry he could eat while joining cables, checking connections and graphs, welding here and there. Despite that, Zim kept pressing him constantly; Juna was allowed to take a rest once every some time. But if Zim didn't rest, he wouldn't. He wouldn't give him the opportunity to humiliate him for his "pitiful efficiency ".

After years of being overexploited in an endless number of underpaid and dangerous jobs, Juna had come to think he knew what was the real exhaustion. But to work beside the unpleasant irken had showed him how wrong he was. He had thought that to work with him would require only hacking some feeble security programs and let Zim have the audacity to get into those technological fortresses. The irken didn't lack the agility, trickery and confidence to obtain what he wanted and to return without a scratch. But, as soon as the irken noticed he could understand the complicated human control systems and instrumentation, but also to learn the basics of the irken technology, he had entrusted him an endless list of tasks that, virtually, consumed the little free time he had.

A month was almost gone over the same line, almost three days with no sleep and his eyes couldn't focus anymore, even with the lenses on. Zim barely showed any weariness, only once Juna had found him yawning. Every day, when he came back to Zim's place, GIR would babble all they had done while he was gone but he had never mentioned anything about Zim taking a rest, would it be that irkens didn't sleep?

He looked briefly at the alien and got back to his work. Even hidden in that abandoned building, Zim kept his holographic disguise on, disappointing the human. Juna couldn't suppress the curiosity he felt toward everything related to him. It was a mix of intimidation and fascination. Where did he come from? How had he gotten to Earth? How it felt like to be there, in outer space, seeing closely all those marvelous supernovas, galaxies, planets and solar systems of all shapes and sizes the humans had caught with telescopes and satellites in the last centuries? And, specially, how had he met Dib I? But the irken's aggressive, unforeseeable and volatile personality intimidated him against making any questions.

Maybe Zim would turn accessible enough to answer his questions, but at the moment it seemed to be as probable as to find the remaining pieces in the nearest public garbage dump.

"Then …" The human thought "If this red cable is common, then this blue one with the yellow one is for digital signals. The white one for feedback, the green one the repeater and the black one for the energy supply. Wait a sec, the red one is the feedback and the black for the energy supply … No, wait. Again. The blue one is the digital wire, or was it the yellow one?" Tremulous, Juna's hands stopped, he couldn't think right anymore and he struggle to keep his eyes open. Wisely, he weighed the situation: If he stopped, Zim would reproach him his "pathetic human weakness" if he didn't make porridge out of him, but if he continued he would connect something wrong for sure and the ship and its occupants would end up, at best, as a fireball in the stratosphere. Though he didn't like the irken much, Juna's conscience wouldn't let him live with that.

No, he couldn't do that any longer.

Before saying something, Zim turned around, busy with a gray metallic piece between his hands.

- Human beast. Continue with that, tomorrow. - The irken stretched his arm; his slender hand reached out a thin tool from the floor and inserted it in the piece.

Juna was speechless; incredulous. He didn't think Zim would let him go without shouts or humiliations. Suspiciously, the human nodded, stood up as quickly as possible, making his joints crack and took his backpack. He didn't want to anger Zim for his delay, he shouldn't push his luck.

- See ya tomorrow - Juna said before leaving the room, not expecting to receive a reply, but he smiled. Despite the circumstances, he couldn't deny that this was the most exciting and intellectually stimulant thing that he had ever done in his life. But he needed a bed urgently and a shower. - Ah! Zim, I am going to resign to my work at the messenger company. – He commented, timidly. – I still have to go three more days, because of the contract. - He added to avoid any misunderstanding. He knew Zim didn't care about his personal problems but he had to know about the extra time he would have the next few days. – But I will have more time to work on this.

The irken looked at him with no real interest and shrugged. If Juna waited for any poisonous comment on his behalf, he didn't receive it. Something strange was going on to him, but he didn't have the courage to ask.

- Then, you can come earlier. Get here at nine when you stop being a messenger drone. - Zim dismissed the boy and kept working.

Outside of the building, Juna didn't notice the irken's eyes upon him. Zim watched him sticking his head out of a collapsed section of the high wall surrounding the building's ground. Juna looked at both sides and, quickly, he was out of sight.

Zim yawned deeply and watched GIR briefly, who was playing with a small pile of garbage at the foot of the construction. It was distressing to know that that robot was the only existing being in the entire universe to which he could trust.

A transmitter came out of his pak.

- GIR - His voice came out tired but strong enough. The SIR looked at him and greeted him with a wide smile - I don't want you to come up here 'til I say so, understood? – Through the transmitter, GIR's sharp and excited voice answered "Yes, master!" echoing with the shout from below - If any foolish hobo comes in, warn me at once by the transmitter.

Zim walked towards the opposite wall and a meter away from it, the wall rose, exposing a small red room. Once inside, the wall closed behind him.

Screens and keyboards were placed on the wall, at the center there was a wide red armchair. All that was everything he could save from his old base, it didn't even have a basic control installed but with so little, it would be superfluous. He sat down on the armchair and, relaxing, he closed his eyes.

Zim could hide very well his weariness, out there it was a matter of survival and he wouldn't change that just for being on Earth.

He needed to rest as much as he hated it and it caused him to want to have the human away; actually, anyone should be far-away. He couldn't allow him to be nearby, much less to let him know about that secret place. His only shelter in the universe.

…

The access sliding door of his small _box_ opened with a sharp shriek, just enough to let Juna come in, dragging his feet. He dropped his backpack after him, falling noisily on the circuit boards and old magazines. Knowing perfectly the order of the chaos inside the small space, he avoided boxes, cables and electronic bits without tripping in the darkness. At the back side, he fell down on the narrow bed, growling tiredly. He looked at the glowing red numbers of the alarm clock. Six of the evening. Lucky, that day he didn't have night shift at the bar so he had of the whole night to rest, that thought made him smile and he made himself comfortable on the sheets.

He wondered if the irken would let him stay at his hiding place, saving the trip time from one place to the other, the bar was nearby and, if he was to quit the messenger company, it would be convenient for him. But the better he knew Zim, more improbable it seemed he would agree; the alien was very jealous toward his place, but he had though the same one month ago when he asked him to work with him.

Juna had planned to quit both jobs but he didn't trust the irken's honesty. What would happen if, at the last moment, Zim decided to betray him? He should keep his job at the bar, it was less tiring to serve clients who only wanted drinks and as long as he did, they would be happy. If there was a fight, it wasn't his job to stop it.

He sighed on the pillow, closed the eyes and he fell asleep fast.

…

If he looked at the sky, he could clearly see the particular band of stars of the earthly sky. A soft breeze blew among the tree branches and, hidden up there were two people, sitting on the thickest and highest branches.

That was one of the many times Dib had taken the irken to one of his field researches. At the beginning, Dib didn't trust the irken enough to leave him alone for many days at home so Zim was, virtually, dragged into the car or airplane. Then Dib had to gather all his patience to stand him the rest of the trip or until the irken would get tired of complaining.

After a year of knowing each other, the irken had resigned to be taken and brought as a dead weight. It was against his nature to be a burden and, especially, to accept orders from a non-irken being and, therefore, inferior but in that case, if he could irritate the human, he would take any opportunity. Eventually, he had gotten bored of shouting and complaining. The human ignored him now and, without that, Zim didn't get any entertainment.

Zim watched the weak reflection of the computer screen on the human's glasses and tried to get comfortable on the branch he was sitting on. The human had been looking for a "sneefehr" for days. It was some kind of fox that, according to the stories, it only appeared at night and left behind a fire trace when startled but up until now they hadn't found a clue. There were cameras, microphones, movement and temperature sensors and scanners all over the place and not even a spark was found.

Though the irken rejected the human's exploration tactics, he couldn't deny that they worked somehow. The area Dib chose would find him whatever he was looking for, which happened to be a mystery to Zim. But he refused to ask or to show ignorance or curiosity about the primitive human methods.

They were both on the tree because, according to the human, they should keep their smells away from any inhabitant of that stinking organic rubbish dump Dib called forest. As far as he knew, the sniffer wasn't aggressive but there were some "behr" things he wanted to avoid at any cost. Zim had the impression Dib already had run into one of them before, ending in an unfortunate and urgent admission to the hospital.

Zim tried to sit again but the angle of the branch wouldn't let him without arching his back painfully to make room for his pak. He wouldn't complain, he was a proud member of the greatest and most powerful military force known in the universe ever, a decorated soldier, a brilliant elite, an acknowledged invader…! An irken who deserved death for turning his back to his most important mission of his existence: To give his life for the empire and to blindly obey the Tallest's commands. Even in _those_ circumstances, he would never forgive himself and, being up there, he felt like paying for it. He could not even wear this dignifying military uniform any longer.

He tried to sit again but he could barely hold on to the branch to stay up. Frustrated, he scratched the bark, growling and cursing the insolent tree.

- Zim, let's get back to the camp. - Dib whispered from his spot, placing his computer on a support fixed in a close branch. He took off the lenses and massaged the bridge of his nose - It seems that today we didn't have luck, either.

Tired, Dib took a bag hung on a branch and put his belongings in it.

- Giving up, human? Ha! How predictable, pretentious earthling pig. Your lack of strength doesn't surprise me. - The irken mocked, feigning boredom and complete control of his precarious position on the tree.

Dib glanced at him outraged and kept picking up all he had placed on the branches like small power sources, maps, communication aerials and a cup holder.

Zim felt his partner's frustration; it was the first time he had gotten nothing over a week, not even a blurry photograph. But if Dib said they could go back, he wouldn't complain at all. His body felt sore, mainly his back.

Before Zim could get down the tree, he noticed the human unmoving, silent.

- Pig-monkey, let's go. I don't want to find a group of raccoons nesting in the camp again.

Dib sighed but resolutely, and surprising the irken, he took out all his belongings and put them back on their place.

- What … what are you doing?

- Zim, go ahead. I'm staying here a bit longer.

- W…what? Seriously, Human-monkey, you think that, just because you stay here 'til dawn that "sneefehr" silliness will appeared when it hasn't in seven days?

- Zim, I've told you, you can stay at the camp. At least, you won't have to worry about falling of a tree there. - The irken, infuriated, tried to seem oblivious about that comment, playing fool. Resigned, Dib told him – If it helps you somehow, if by tomorrow morning I don't find anything, we are getting back home. Alright?

- Good! - The irken said, he got back to his place on the branch and tried to get hold of it again.

- Aren't you going back? – Dib asked baffled, after an instant of silence.

- You dragged Zim to this landfill, you forgot his skitte and he has been for the last hundred sixty earthly hours squashed on this primitive vegetable structure. Zim won't let you rub any moment of weakness on his face. Understood? Never! - Zim nodded, emphasizing his words.

- Whatever. – He replied, not in the mood to argue.

Why had he found this conceited and irrational alien? Would they all be like that? Dib hoped not, but then it only showed how much the Universe enjoy making fun of him.

Half an hour went by, the computer hadn't detected anything. Growls could be heard from the forest and Zim was more bored than before. He looked at the human, focused on the equipment, then at the forest and back to the human.

It was too annoying.

- Why do you want to find this greasy beast? – The irken asked, casually. If he was to be there, at least he should know what for. The human could do something less uncomfortable with his life for sure. – You know you could do useful things for your planet than wasting your time looking for something it might not even exist?

- You have no idea how many times I have heard that. - The human answered, watching the screen. Back then, Zim couldn't sense any trace of sorrow in the words. He had been almost a year on Earth but still couldn't understand the subtleties of the human language and maybe he never would. Not that he was interested in that.

- Then why don't you take any notice? - Zim knew Dib was much more intelligent than anyone he'd had the disgrace of meeting. But he would be stupid not to see something so obvious. – Seriously, human, that large head of yours is a misuse of space.

- If you think that just …! - His words came out too loud and Dib shot his mouth. He should control his voice volume or he could fright any nearby sniffer.

It couldn't be, even Zim had done that question! Dib felt frustrated and tried to give an answer but, how could he explain his situation to Zim, not delving into his most private family issues and make him understand the humans' motivations? He knew Zim enough to know that he would not let that question go unsolved. He would push him and kick up a fuss over it until he got an answer. He didn't have any other choice than to give him one, even if it was partially the truth. He didn't owe him anything to let him look into his own personal insecurities.

Dib took a moment and answered.

- Because, otherwise, I don't feel free.

"'Free?' What was the pig meat talking about?" Zim thought, confused and slightly irritated. How was that related to this ridiculous research?

- Here, there is nothing that judges me, presses or tries of influence on my life and work.

"Oh! That. Yes, that's important." Even Zim had to admit how much he had enjoyed his wide leeway during his work in the research facilities at Vort, not long before all the mess began.

- And especially, I am sure that somewhere … - And Dib did a gesture, pointing at the forest. - …is something that nobody has been captured ever before. I want to know… no, I need to know what is it, where did it come from, why it evolved like that, why till now it has stayed hidden? I want to be the one who finds the answers. I'll show everyone that science has unexplored paths in front of it, so many unseen possibilities. Besides…- And Dib smiled, his resolute eyes fixed on the forest. -…here I get all the peace I need.

Zim looked at the forest too, chewing the human's words for several minutes and, slowly, the irken found a familiar concept to explain all that nonsense. Seeing it from his particular point of view, everything became clear. Dib was a hunter, his hunts didn't involve blood and death, like those Zim had taken part previously when he was in the irken army, but they required trickery and skills to get indisputable evidence, his trophies and the recognition that he was searching for.

Zim understood then that he had also been a prey Dib had hunted down. But this hunter had not exposed him to the world to show off his victory, he had kept him to himself, a priceless and unique trophy to give away. Even more, he had given him a shelter where to lick his wounds, time to recover and the patience to stand him.

The word "unique" did echo in his mind but, at the moment, it was too heavy and vain to stay afloat and it was gone into oblivion.

A hunter and their prey. The analogy hurt his already injured pride but, seeing the human's determination, he couldn't blame him. At the end, Zim was the one who had given up.

Weighing the situation, he could try to get involved in that. Just a little. He didn't have anything to lose and, while his spaceship was in those deplorable conditions, he couldn't leave either.

It seemed he had found something to pass the time while he was stuck on this stinking planet. Things didn't seem so bad anymore. The irken concluded then that that PA-RA-NOR-MAL thing could do something for him, except for a few details. Zim lied back and tried to get comfortable in his place, again.

- Zim! Look, I think there is som…

The cold of the morning disappeared as well as the hard branch, the leaves, the wind, and Dib's enthusiastic expression, waking up a confused Zim. He heard the human's words echoing in his mind.

He was laid on the armchair inside his secret room in the old and abandoned building, one hundred and fifty years ahead, where the sniffer and other legendary creatures had become exotic pets and Dib was dead.

Getting back to reality supposed to adjust his ideas temporally and, sometimes, to struggle against those re-lived thoughts and sensations and enclose them where they should be. He didn't dare to get up, he let the silence reign in that place for several minutes, diluting that voice and he tried to focus on his immediate reality.

There were no words to express how much hated to sleep.

…

- No! Don't leave! Do you have any idea all the extra work I'll have from now on? - Freed implored, clung to her friend's torso.

Juna had handed in his resignation three days ago and now he had to leave his post. Despite he gave them time enough, the job was still empty. The city was too big; the company needed someone who knew it like the palm of their hand.

Just before he came back to Capital City, he had memorized the city map and all the public transport routes. If he had to run away, he should know where to and how to flee. Fortunately, when he arrived, there was a place available at that messenger company and didn't think twice about it.

- You will be fine, Freed. Someone will take my place soon. - The boy tried to comfort her.

- You are an idiot, you know what I mean! - The girl's sorrow was obvious and his conscience troubled him. Juna felt a real fondness towards her; she was his best and only friend. He really did regret doing that to her.

- I have some family things I must attend to out of the city; I can't put them aside any longer. – Every lie made him feel ashamed, but still he couldn't change his mind, his new priority was his clandestine job in order to get the normal and quiet life he wanted. The boy hoped that, some day in the future, he could tell her the truth but now he should keep it secret.

- But, you'll be back soon, right? Why don't you take your free days in advance? Stay here.

- I'm sorry. I don't know how long I'll be away. But as soon as I come back, you will be the first one to know and we can go out, anywhere you like, alright? – His friend promised from the bottom of his heart. It was the least and only thing he could do for her.

- Very well, but we are going to a nice place and you will pay the bill, understood? - Freed said, holding her sad tears in, showing a forced looking smile.

- Good - The boy smiled too, trying to assure his words. Juna should have a better financial situation by then, with some luck. To use his money would be much safer if he didn't have to show a fake identity every time. He felt sad to be far from his friend. – Take care, Martin. – He said at the manager, who had seen the scene quietly.

- You too, kiddo. Good luck. Rest and eat well. - The manager answered, fatherly.

Martin knew how kind, responsible and polite Juna was. He had never received complain about his work or his treatment with the clients. Sadly, Martin couldn't guarantee his job once he was back, any minute now someone could take that place.

Martin and the young woman were silent while Juna, before leaving, removed some personal belongings from his wardrobe, at the end of the hall.

- Freed, he'll be back soon, you will see. We don't have much work today. You can get back home early. – The girl nodded sadly. Martin continued with his work, putting in the delivery orders, behind the counter and Juna was gone.

- Crap, you can't stop giving me more work. Right, kid? – She whispered to herself. She looked at the solitary entrance of the building, Martin was distracted and the hall was empty. No one could see her. – Ok, I'm done here. I'm leaving too.

Martin was busy, picking up some boxes from the floor when the service bell on the counter rang. When he turned around, he saw a corpulent man smiling at him. His hair was black and straight, wearing a modern version of the classic executive black suit, the latest fashion.

- Hello, is there something you need? - Martin asked, distrustful.

The man smiled. Martin couldn't help but notice the row of sharp teeth and, watching closer, his eyes were red, his ears slightly sharp-pointed, his skin had a strange grayish tone and his nails were long.

- I am sorry too, Martin. But there are things that I cannot leave behind. I promise you that if I must do a sending, I will use this service. - The man said, leaning on the counter.

When Dib I confirmed the existence of non-human groups and helped in their insertion in the human society, it was not weird that a _stranger_, as they were usually called, would wander around the streets. Fortunately, almost never they had caused problems, much less than humans themselves did. But the presence of this person made Martin feel anxious, especially those eyes.

Martin felt slight dizzy, but the sensation was gone suddenly. He looked around not finding anything or anybody. He was sure that someone was there just a second ago. What had happened? It should be his imagination and discarded his suspicions. He didn't have time for that; he had a lot of work to do.

He checked the orders chart and he couldn't believe what he saw. Many deliveries hadn't been assigned to anyone. Had the computer made a mistake? How? He had been in the jobs for years and nothing like had ever happened! It was like if two delivery boys had disappeared!

He plugged the tablet to the computer, looking for an answer. All the delivery boys had arrived that day but something was wrong, there were two vacant since a couple of year ago. How had they worked like that so far?

That was too strange.

…

At the top of a high building, there was a boy self-absorbed in what just had happened to him while he looked critically at the city. He still had pins and needles all over his body after the electrical shock he had received and his body would need a few more minutes to get his full mobility back.

Meanwhile, he had poor hopes to accomplish the mission there or anywhere else on that planet. In outer space, they hadn't found any characteristic traces of a fugitive from his world would left behind. But he was dealing with a particularly cunning person who has been hidden from the Empire expertly over the years. They didn't even know what they would have to face at the end.

According to his height, he had to adopt a teenager human appearance of short dark hair, brown skin and black eyes.

He turned around and looked at the reddish architecture of familiar structure nailed in the top of the building. The old military bases had to be installed directly on the planet's surface but the latest designs could be placed almost on any surface, as long as there was a nearby source of energy. Thanks to the technology of his planet, only he and his team were capable of seeing and accessing to it. But taking into account the earthlings' short intelligence, it was more than enough. They wouldn't notice it even if it was installed at the city downtown, decorated with neon lights.

He, as a member of the elite group of his world, had to fulfill the mission assigned by his leader, even if his subordinates' behavior had turned out to be so irritating. He should stay calm, to keep his mind collected. The outcome of the irken war and the future of the empire depended on that.

He heard steps, clearly from two people, coming at him from behind. It must be those two mad guys under his charge for sure and, obviously, they knew all about the transmission with the Tallest. Given the current situation, he had to take as many precautions as he could to avoid any intervention of the communication network from the enemy but these two guys always found a way to know everything and they refused to reveal their secrets.

Even if he deeply hated them, he couldn't deny that, to be a couple of mistakes in the reproduction system of his species, up to that moment they had showed to be too clever and capable. Just for nothing they had earned important victories for the Empire with just a small and despicable squadron of 9B type soldiers.

- What's up, commander Skoodge? Does the Tallest not pet you anymore? – One voice said, not too deep or sharp to guess its gender, a type of voice increasingly common among the irkens. For their society, such thing was pointless. The individuals' responsibilities and achievements were up to their effort and, mainly, to their height. Genetic gender was the leftover of what, thousands of years ago, had been the instinctive, uncontrolled and unsupervised form of the irken reproduction. Thank Irk, it was all over when it designed the finest cloning system in the entire Universe.

- I think this is the third time the Tallest sends you an electrical shock. Am I right, commander? – A deeper voice responded.

"Don't let those bastards provoke you." Skoodge held on to that thought each time he had to deal with them. How come he didn't get any normal and psychologically stable soldiers who respected his rank?

- We were more useful to the empire at the battle line than here, in this pigsty.

Reluctantly, Skoodge turned round. The first person who had spoken looked like a young human female with blonde, straight and short hair, of deep green eyes and flushed skin.

Skoodge knew that, under that deceitfully delicate appearance, existed a deadly collection of knives that the owner, Drainden, could use perfectly. Even under that disguise and hidden under the elite soldier's armor, he had weapons and ammunitions of large caliber, enough to unleash a riot all over Capital City and the surrounding towns.

The other irken, called Montroot, looked like a young human male with dark hair, wearing wide goggles over his eyes.

- I suppose you already know the new adjustments of the mission. - The leader said, ignoring their words.

- Every detail. - Drainden answered, not showing remorse for intervening in the private communication of the commander. - We informed Russ in the control room, your blue-eyed lap dog was waiting for orders.

Then, a teenager of blue eyes and dark brown hair came out of the base and saluted at Skoodge.

- Commander, they had informed me the Tallest had changed the mission conditions. Is that true?

Skoodge nodded, grateful that someone in the group respected him.

- It doesn't matter if we catch Zim dead or alive. Tallest Purple wants his pak at any cost, even if we have to sacrifice him.

They all agreed with the decision. To catch this fugitive alive had proved to be too difficult and risky, no one wanted to join to the long list of purple soldiers who had died in the attempt. For the first time since his pursuit had begun, Zim would face a team that wouldn't hold back to get what belonged to the empire.

Skoodge looked worried at the enormous extension of Capital City. The mission at hand was too delicate and vital, that would finish once and for all with the war that was tearing the Irken Empire apart, breaking up its power and progresses that, over millennia, it had reached.

- Go. – Skoodge ordered. - We must put this war to an end. There is no time to lose.

Drainden, Montroot and Russ were next to him and, after a gesture, the first two disappeared silently, sneaking away at the foot of the building. Briefly, Skoodge followed them but their speed let them blend in the native population just like a thread of smoke in a thick fog.

Russ stayed behind a second to bow respectfully and submissively at him, then he followed his comrades of mission. Russ liked to move under the shadows and alleys of the buildings, not calling any attention to himself, avoiding leaving behind any tracks of his presence.

When he lost them on sight, Skoodge joined to the search. Invisible by the hologram, a mask covered his mouth and a visor his eyes, in which he could follow their position and status. Montroot had moved towards the north, Drainden to the east and Russ to the west. So there was only one place left for him.

…

Montroot stretched his arm and hid, in a dark corner behind a building, a dark red sphere. He pressed a spot on his wrist and the sphere became activated and undetectable by any irken tracking. As soon as the order was given, several of those devices would scan the city, looking for a particular energy paks emitted. The equipment hadn't got it from the space, forcing them to land. If there was an irken outside the base when they were activated, they would not only be found but the trackers would send a stunning signal that would keep them paralyzed time enough to get them.

Before moving back to his task, Montroot checked the information he had just received through a secret subprogram in the computer of the base which existence only he and Drainden knew about.

He pressed a side of his goggles. A torrent of information spread out in his mind from his pak and just by thinking about it, he manipulated, filtered, rejected and classified the information. He smiled, pleased by the discovery.

He had almost finished installing the scanners on that zone, but it was safer to inform Drainden about the result of their little private research from his position than telling him at the base. The street and shops lights turned on as the sky became dark. Soon he would have to get back to the base, he had spent too much time away from Drainden and that could be dangerous for both.

- Drainden, are you done yet? - Montroot asked and leaned against the building wall, not needing to deploy the pak transmitter. With some mental adjustments in the pak he could transfer complete messages only to his partner. They were sure no one else, in the entire irken species, had the capacity to perform that kind of subtle and precise communication, without using any device for that. That capacity had allowed them to survive beyond the short life expectancy of soldiers like them.

- Just a few minutes ago. - His partner answered. - What's up? – On his side, Drainden was walking along a crowded avenue.

- Zim is here.

Taken aback, Drainden answered, ready to process the information Montroot had for him.

- Give me a brief report. - Montroot listened and put the hands in the pockets of his holographic sack.

- Just as we supposed. Zim has been stealing to technology companies in this city in the last fourteen terrestrial weeks. The list of stolen goods is quite a thing; it includes anti-gravitational stabilizers, propellants based on inert gases, just to mention a few. They're mostly supplies designed for a space ship. I'll send the rest of the list to you, the next possible missing pieces and the location of every earth company that owns them.

- Keep going. – It wasn't difficult to guess what was happening. It seemed like Zim was trying to fix his ship. The information invader Tak had left behind made clear Zim's ship had important malfunctions and it might not support the stress of the long trips he was forced to do any longer. They wouldn't waste the opportunity to catch him, now that he was stuck on that planet.

- The pattern I see in the latest thefts makes me think he is working with someone else but at the moment I can't determine if it is a human or not.

- Yes, I noticed that too. At least we know that if Zim keeps stealing with this frequency, he won't be able to leave in at least few more weeks. Mmm… Tak reported he was alone, right?

- But that report is more than three years old. According to witnesses, Zim took a dismantled SIR but it was not found in Tak's memories. Perhaps, one of these monkeys assist him, maybe Zim makes it work against its will.

Drainden thought deeply. Undoubtedly, it was an enormous advantage to know that Zim was in that city, they could focus their efforts on that single area of the planet. The scanners had been very useful during the war on Irk, many battles had been won thanks to that technological innovation, but he had his doubts if they could be that useful in that case. A fugitive like Zim should know by now how to avoid them, even more after running up with a soldier as strong as Tak.

- Montroot, we will proceed as we planned and I will take this information to the commander. - Montroot agreed, recalling the analysis they had done on Zim before arriving to the Earth. – We must make clear that we know his plan and, at the end, Zim will be so stressed that it will be easier to defeat him in a direct confrontation.

- It's the only advantage we can get. - They understood their limitations in that mission but that had never stopped them to end up victorious in the battlefield. If they wanted to be something more that 9B soldiers, they had to go back with that pak or die trying. Despite it all, they knew a cruel truth about the mission. - It was a serious mistake Tak had found Zim, before.

…

- Commander? - Russ called, getting into the control room of the base. – As soon as Drainden and Montroot get back, the scanning will begin.

Skoodge was absorbed in the information he had gathered since his arrival to Earth, displayed on several screens in the control room. The location of the missing irken soldier was on a corner, away from the base.

"It's not going to work" The leader thought.

- Complete the procedure, just like before. Then we will have to search on our own. – He answered indifferently.

- Sir, do you think it will fail?

- No, Russ. I am sure. The fact that Zim had run up with Tak puts us in disadvantage. It let him know the latest advances in the military technology and crucial information of our forces. Though three years have passed, our weapons have not changed substantially. He knows what we'll use to attack and he will be prepared to face us. - More information appeared on the screens but nothing useful.

- Then why bother with …?

- The Tallest is supervising the mission from Irk. He will notice if we don't carry out the search according to his criteria. The Tallest has ordered a scan and we will comply with him. – Skoodge looked at Russ' shinny and weird looking blue eyes and tightened his elite soldier uniform armband- Prepare yourself. The empire can't afford any delay. – He checked his weapons, everyone was ready. – You know? If we have some luck, Zim might have come back to this city. – And he looked at one spot on the main screen.

Russ found a very peculiar image on the screen. In it there were two people, one of them was easily identifiable if you happen to know the basics of human history: To the right, the greatest driving force of the Earth science and technology ever, Dib Membrane I and, at his side, wearing the most deplorable disguise he had seen in his life, was the irken they were looking for.

- Depending on the scanning, we will install some scanners Hasja on the zone.

The scanners Hasja had been used for decades before the war in the empire began and had become obsolete after the invention of the scanner-stunners. Russ understood Zim didn't expect to be pursued by such outdated tools and any defense he could have against the scanner-stunners would be useless.

The base communication was on and Drainden's voice resounded in the room:

- Hey, Skoodge! Do you hear me? We have found something; we'll be there in no time.

…

Double vanilla milk shake, berry jam sandwich, a couple of chocolate bars, a package of glazed cookies, a cold soda and, finally, chewing gum.

- I think I'm gonna throw up. - Juna whispered, on having seen the excessive quantity of sugar the irken could eat at lunch. Suppressing an over-sweet sensation in his mouth, he bit his own food.

- Did you say something? – The irken asked at his side. Juna shook his head energetically, still chewing. – Hurry up, it's about to arrive.

"He doesn't even let me eat at peace" Juna thought bitterly.

The human swallowed it whole and throw the wrapper into a nearby trash can just when the subway arrived. They got in and took seat.

The subway ran, shaking the users inside. It went through a dark tunnel for several minutes, went up a slope and, reaching the peak, the tunnel opened wide, showing a splendid view of the city. The highest and most modern skyscrapers at downtown, like stalagmites made of concrete and iron alloys surrounding the overwhelming central building of the Membrane Company: The biological, astrophysics and space research facilities. Lately the Membrane festival decorations had weaved through every street and people didn't talk about nothing else.

Suddenly, cold hued lights spread out in the sky and stayed there for a while. The irken watched the aurora spreading and fluctuating all over the sky, like long ghostly curtains, from north to south.

- When you first came here, auroras only existed at the Earth poles. Right, Zim? - Zim didn't answer but nodded, abstracted. – I have always liked to see them. The magnetic field energy generators were installed just before I was born. At school, teachers explained to us how they work. The theory behind it was developed by Dib I, it's really ingenious. Even some people had believed that he got some extraterrestrial help. It seems they aren't that wrong.

- What are you talking about? – The irken asked, paying attention to the human at last.

- You know. - Zim was puzzled, not understanding him.

There were a number of urban myths regarding the Membrane family and what happened inside the laboratories. He knew firsthand those were cheap gossips. Juna always ignored them but when he knew about Zim, an alien with a severe case of neurosis and narcissism, who had known the much-admired Dib I, now he had reasons to pay attention to the rumors.

- You helped Dib I to create that.

- For Irk's sake. - Zim rolled his eyes, irritated. – You know nothing, idiotic human. You wasted your useless time in those pitiful mind atrophying centers you call schools. - The irken ranted angry, looking at the city again. - For your information, scabby monkey, most of the planets known by my people have a very weak magnetic field. It would not even work to light a bulb, even the atmosphere and weather are supported artificially. It's the first time Zim sees this. – Then he glanced at him. Inside, Zim wished to kick his ass right there but it wasn't the place and time for that. – Dib did this alone, so don't underestimate him.

- I'm sorry, many things are said about the Membrane that I assumed… - The boy tried to apologize, but he knew he had screwed it up.

- Shut up! – The irken interrupted – Zim needs no apologizes from a stinky human-pig like you. Instead of thinking historical bilges, you should be preparing yourself for Saturday night. We have much work to do.

He would never mention his ancestor in front of the irken again. It was like a walk across a minefield.

- Idiot - They whispered simultaneously, not hearing the other.

They got off at the next station. Zim felt a shiver running up his spine. There should be a cold wind for sure, he thought. Through his pak, he adjusted the internal temperature of his uniform. He had a lot of things in his mind to pay any attention.

…

It was one hour before midnight and Zim was already crossing the corridors of a group of warehouses with the supply in his hands. It had been very simple, the security officers were distracted with the television transmission of the festival and the irken hoped they would stay like that until the end.

_- Move forward – Skoodge said when every soldier took their spot around the circular warehouses. The stunner-scanners had failed, just as they had foreseen, but with the information Drainden and Mrot had gotten and the scanners Hasja, they had found the irken deserter._

Juna said "Wait" and Zim hid in a corner. He heard footsteps approaching, happy voices and they were gone seconds later. He listened "Forward" and moved on. "Right, in the third passageway." Zim turned right and entered to the corridor. "Through the ceiling. Get into the air duct at your left." Zim deployed the pak legs and its metallic surface shone with the outside lights. He moved on to the ceiling and got into the air duct. "At the bottom there is an exit, no one will be there." Zim nodded and moved furtively.

_- To the northeast wing. – Russ pointed out._

Juna watched irken using the surveillance cameras as guide, hidden behind a dense shrub. The warehouses were enormous circular constructions next to the biggest park of the city, this one with dozens of hectares of extension. Juna was a hundred meters away from the principal access, guiding the irken's path with great care. The noise of the Membrane festival opening was increasingly strong from the other side of the park, fireworks exploited in the air in complex figures trying to compete with the brilliant lights of the city and reflectors. The mix of music and the chaotic shouting seemed to come to its highest peak.

Juna took a moment to stretch and see the enlightened towers around. Normally he would work on that day so he never had the chance to get involved in the event, except for once. He remembered having gone to the opening once when he was a seven year old child. One of his father's personal assistants had taken him to the principal building of the company where to enjoy the best sight of the city and the celebration.

He barely knew his temporary guardian; he was called Ryan… Something, one of the closest people to his father and the manager of the public image of the company and the Membrane family. So it wasn't a surprise that on having entered to the great events hall he was dragged between the most important guests to be introduced. Juna couldn't remember a single name or face he had in front that night but he did remember how uncomfortable and bad-tempered he felt after an hour of superfluous chats; it was too much for a child of that age. For a moment, his guardian got distracted and the child took advantage of it to slip away between the adults' legs, toward a wide balcony.

There were more people at the balcony rather than inside, still he could dodge the adults, he got to the hand railing and looked carefully at the outer activity. The streets were crowed by a confusing fusion of people, lights, sounds, confetti and allegoric cars.

The small Membrane kid would need several years to understand completely the sensation he had in that moment, but he didn't ignore it back then. The people below, without effort, joined one with the other into one single feeling, in which they were connected to or it got connected to them. Then he saw the grown up people behind him, wondering if they shared something, too.

The child found it. It wasn't as passionate or explosive as the one in the street and, even, he could feel something slightly bitter and cold in it, but they let themselves go by whatever that was. And he looked at himself: All alone against the railing, waiting not to be found by anyone, like he always did. And for the first time in his life, he felt deep loneliness: To be surrounded by people who knew every small detail about his life but nobody was actually interested in who he was. They knew that information to have some topic to talk with his father and to get some profit of it. And when the time would come, he would be surrounded by those hypocrite morons, too.

No, he wouldn't let that happen to him.

- Stop thinking nonsense. – He told off to himself.

The twenty-one-year-old Dib V focused on the computer screen, decided to take control of his life, even if he had to stand that selfish alien.

- Zim, follow the evacuation route signs from now on. When you get to the end, I'll give you the last instructions.

_- He's heading to the emergency exit, fifteen meters north. - Drainden Reported._

_- Drainden, go. Montroot, back him up. I don't want you apart longer than necessary._

Zim ran the halls furtively. His tuned senses gathered all the information about his surroundings. When walking, he could even feel every little detail he would normally miss: the walls material, the changing temperature, the echo of his steps, and every access point for the smallest bugs up to the largest machinery. Even so, his perception degree should improve, every detail could be a great difference the day he would have to break into the Membrane Company facilities and Juna would have to access that information too if they wish to have full control over the security network.

_- Commander, there is a human outside in communication with Zim. He is guiding him towards the exit and deactivating the alarms before him. - Mrot took his position, hidden between the shadows_

_- Russ, create an interference to that signal and mess with the security system. We must distract the human guards._

Juna made a last adjustment to the security system and freed Zim's path to avoid any delay. But out of nowhere, four people appeared in the map. A glimpse later, Juna located all the police officers at their positions, therefore those four strangers must be thieves too and one of them was dangerously close to Zim. He had to warn him.

- Zim! Stop, there is… ! - The communication was interrupted, abruptly. The boy clanged to the remaining flow of information but, violently, the values went off and the computer got stuck. Juna couldn't help to feel astonished. It was the first time he had lost control of a system!

Zim felt the information variation like a thousand sparkles before his eyes and he staggered.

- Human-pig! What's going on?

He felt a shiver on this nape and, instinctively, he threw himself to the ground, avoiding a missile that got embedded in the wall. The object emitted a powerful wave that hit his body straight. Zim lost his strength, dropped the package and stayed still on the floor, numbed. He knew that attack; he couldn't believe what was happening.

Juna's computer lost the information of the network but he knew the counterattack hadn't come from the warehouses security. The people he had detected before must be the cause but, how had they entered the building without him knowing? What was going in there? Was Zim fine? He hoped that, somehow, GIR could help him.

Juna tried to income to the system but his computer didn't respond. Defeated, he decided to move to the meeting point they had agreed hours earlier, at the other end of the park, in case of emergency like that one.

On the floor, Zim struggled against his own body to get up, it fell heavy and insensitive, even his sight and balance were affected.

Of the lateral corridor, a figure appeared, hanging of the ceiling by his pak legs. The stranger came down and drew out two short knives from his forearm armors and, cautiously, he move toward him.

"Tallest Purple wants his pak." Drainden remembered and lifted the knives at Zim. A stab in the right place and the hunt would be over.

Startled, Zim forced his pak to act. The pak did emergency adjustments and got control of his body. With agility, he got up, evaded the attack and rapidly his own pak legs spread out to attack, surprising Drainden.

- Zim is on the move! – Drainden exclaimed, defending himself from Zim's fast moves.

_- Impossible, only twelve seconds had passed! - Skoodge was sure no irken could recover that fast after the initial attack, the stunner must have failed. Someone was to blame for that mistake._

Zim used his gloves to block the knives' edge, blocking every blow or repelling them while his pak legs tried to stab his enemy. His body didn't receive any cuts but his arms suffered each impact, he felt a sharp pain in the wrist and he feared it was broken. His pak injected painkillers into his system, to diminish the pain without affecting his cognitive skills.

Two thick cables came out of his pak against Drainden; Drainden took a step backward to dodge them and deployed his own pak legs in defense. The pak legs crashed and the tension caused one of Zim's to bend. Propelled by the remaining metallic legs, Zim held the knives and kicked Drainden in the stomach, who let go of his weapons.

Zim felt his hands rigid and couldn't hold the knives. Quickly, his pak legs rolled up and hit Drainden.

_When Drainden felt, Skoodge yelled:_

_- Montroot, get in! - But the soldier had already jumped to the battle._

Drainden felt Mrot's closeness, his armor covered him completely and he got prepared for his partner's offensive. Mrot's weapon didn't differentiate an ally from an enemy. Montroot took his place against Zim, dragging behind him a smoke trail. Fast, Mrot avoided the sharp metallic pak legs and placed his hand on Zim's face. Zim felt the spicy smoke getting in his mouth. When he moved back his pak legs twisted to push his assaulter away. Coughing, he went on the defensive.

Mrot frowned, something strange was happening to his opponent. He shook his arm and his wrist-strap threw thin darts at Zim. One of them reached his neck and some others draw thin scratches.

"Poison!" Zim thought surprised but relieved that his current condition would make him immune to any regular irken toxins.

Even with a dry and irritated throat, Zim kept attacking. Continuously, Mrot tried to poison him but Zim seemed only bothered by the gas smell and was unconcerned by the darts.

Zim's hands hurt so he had to use his pak to attack and defend himself. Annoyed, Montroot had to admit his tactic wasn't working, he didn't know what was wrong. Since the beginning Zim should have fell with his nerves destroyed by the neurotoxins.

- Mrot, both! - Drainden spoken across their private communication.

Behind Mrot, Drainden reappeared with two sets of long sharp blades and handed one over to Mrot. They synchronized their attack with surprising precision but Zim avoided them with notable agility and they were unable to penetrate his uniform. Even this way, the force of the blows was reaching Zim's body. If he didn't do something soon he would be defeated.

"Shit!" His pak legs spread totally, activating the force field around him. Increasing the power instantaneously, the shield opened wide strongly, throwing the other two irkens against the wall. The legs withdrew while Zim took the stolen package and ran for the escape route.

_- Russ, now! - How was it possible that Montroot and Drainden, together, could not capture him?_

Zim began to feel tired, his energy level had dropped drastically when he used the force field and he hoped he didn't have to use it again. He turned a corner and felt a sharp pain in the back. Another attacker was running at him, shooting blowing bullets. Again, his uniform protected him from wounds but he would have nice collection of bruises in the back.

Weaponless, Zim had to force attacker to fight face to face.

Russ faced Zim and then, two blurry shadows moved at him on every side of the corridor. Russ shot but they did not stop, unexpected a blow hit his face, throw him back. Zim had confused his vision and had moved in the middle of the silhouettes, a space Russ had not attacked.

The Russ's helmet was torn into pieces and Zim noticed his eyes color. An irken with blue eyes? But, who had been so stupid to take him there?

Surprised, Russ recovered the balance and took out another weapon from his waist. Zim's claws became red, aiming them at the soldier's abdomen. Russ's new weapon hit the fugitive's hand, getting worn to shreds at the contact. If that had touched Russ, it would have killed him in the blink of an eye. The blue-eyed warrior avoided the following assault and that one destroyed a wall. Again and again he avoided the claws, while they destroyed the walls around them. Then, the structure collapsed, forcing Russ to move back, giving Zim the opportunity to run away.

- Commander, Zim's headed to the emergency exit! - Russ reported.

_- Regroup! - The leader ordered - I will block the exit. The four of us will attack there._

Several corridors later, Zim breathed heavily, holding the bundle between his arms. His body was trembling because of the fatigue, the dose of analgesic began to vanish and, if he didn't hurry, he would have to deal with the paralyzing pain. He coughed, trying to clear his sore throat.

- GIR, come to me immediately. We are going to need a distraction. - He whispered through his transmitter.

- With the corn pops! Yes, master! - The SIR answered, cheerful.

Zim could not assure the number of irken soldiers but the assault had been very small. Being a bigger group, they would have devastated the entire building in an instant. Growling, Zim stood up and moved on. Without Juna guiding him, he would have to run by his own means.

Hours earlier, Zim and the human boy had analyzed the best escape routes and the nearest emergency exit was the most viable one but the police officers must have detected the bustle for sure, he didn't need to be cautious any longer, he was free to choose the way out.

Skoodge had blocked the emergency exit; they had to corner Zim and attack in group.

At the end of the corridor Zim appeared, walking calmly.

- Hello! – Zim babbled, waving his hand happily.

- Emmm … - Skoodge didn't know how to answer that. He expected a frontal attack, not a friendly greeting. It had to be some strange tactic to distract him. - Invader Zim, by Tallest Purple's command, turn yourself in.

Zim chuckled, irritating Skoodge. "He's mocking me." The commander thought, ready for battle. At the other side of the hall, the three soldiers appeared, waiting for the order to attack.

Zim turned around surprised but he smiled again, he seemed happy to be in that precarious situation.

- Take your seats, the movie is about to start! – The hugged himself and laughed. Then, he jumped, opened out his arms and tiny discs felt on the floor from his chest.

Zim's image vanished, leaving GIR uncovered. Jubilant, he shouted "Good-bye" and the rockets in his legs propelled him cross the ceiling.

- Watch out! – Drainden yelled. And then, the discs exploded.

Juna saw over his shoulder, running behind Zim. A segment of the building fell into pieces after the explosion. He couldn't believe how wrong things had gone.

- Zim, are you sure GIR will be fine? – Juna asked, panting.

- Of course he will. GIR knows what to do. And you keep running; they are still alive. – Zim exclaimed.

- Wait, what? Didn't you see the explosion? - Juna asked, incredulously.

- Ha…! Naive human. We, the irken, are stronger than you think. GIR only bought us some time. - Zim's pak received four irken signals advancing rapidly towards him.

They reached the park border in seconds only to run up against the chaotic multitude absorbed in the festive environment. For a moment they felt caught against the human wall extended to all along the avenue.

Juna watched Zim extracting three small cylinders from his pak and, without warning, threw them over the spectators. In the air, the cylinders exploited into a cloud of smoke, which caused a violent confusion around them.

Zim got into the chaotic agglomeration, hoping the solders would get distracted with the multitude and Juna took an instant to detect the mistake provoked by the irken's desperation. If Zim got lost with no safe route among the crowd, he would be an easy target and in no time those guys would catch him.

Juna knew that zone of the city very well. Even with that exorbitant quantity of people in the festival, he would find a route where they could escape. He didn't think twice about it, he reached out to the irken and held his hand.

- Zim, over here! - Juna dragged him among the tight multitude that, driven to despair, was trying to flee of the gas. He pushed his way out, ignoring the collective fear around them, but he had a feeling of the pursuers approaching on the nape of his neck.

Zim couldn't see the attackers either but his pak informed him the irken signatures were nearby. But thanks to the slippery human, slowly, they gained distance.

Zim had problems to follow the human's pace. Just as the human opened a path among the crowd, it closed behind him; several times he was about to lose the hand but the human held on to him tightly.

In the crowd, many of the Membrane company guards were scattered around, ready for the slightest sign of disturbance. Zedec had worked in those squads for years before getting the chief rank of the worldwide recognized and famous Membrane Guard, the squadron in charge exclusively for the Membrane family and company security. Fortunately, during all his years of service, any grave disturbance had happened out of normal during the celebration of the Membrane festival, the historical day of the official introduction of the paranormal studies in what it was the Membrane Laboratories.

Zedec never trusted the volatile and unforeseeable human factor. At any time, any jerk would think about something stupid and he would have to face the problem, with all the available resources to let the festival conclude satisfactorily. He perfectly knew the dangers that supposed to have assembled half the city in the same place, every five minutes he received reports of his assistants, he listened attentively and gave brief orders. Everything was running smoothly.

Standing on the platform, in front of the Membrane Company building and central spot of the show, Zedec observed carefully at the public, alert on the annual gabble. Nothing could distract him nor disturb his composure. The hard training he had received and his years of experience had prepared him for that job and, proudly, he did his work day after day.

It was then when he received distress calls from his subordinates. Someone had dropped smoke bombs not too far away from his position. He saw a dense greyish cloud around the crowd, the people began to run in panic, interrupting the allegoric cars' course and infecting other spectators with hysteria. For some unknown reason, his sight was briefly on one single youngster among the crowd. Before giving the first order he watched, in that short space of time, the facial features of the boy and, especially, his distinctive hair.

It couldn't be, he couldn't believe his eyes. Was the young Dib in front of his eyes? And, for the first time in years, Zedec went mute.

Clumsily, he held his radio with tremulous hands for the commotion and his words came out hasty. At last, he got his posture back and ranted:

- Group 45 and 8, to the area U-18, now! Control to the multitude! Team TER, with me! - He jumped off the platform and got into the multitude, flanked by a handful of agents. He was 100% sure that boy was Dib, he shouldn't lost him. Zedec had full confidence that his forces would control the situation but he had a duty to attend. He had to find the boy at all cost.

Zim looked at his hand, taken aback, gripped by the human. Up to that moment he had not even come to think about the possibility someone would hold his hand again after finding out about Dib's death and his mind couldn't establish the degree of violence he would use to respond to that offense. But the overwhelming possibility to move away from his guide, to be discovered or to face those irken soldiers with any weapons, he obliged himself to ignore his confusion and disgust. He kept his sight on his hand and let the human drag him among the human mass around him.

Several blocks later, Juna and Zim ran brusquely into a narrow street. They left behind alleys and the farther they went, darker and solitary they became. When the human ran out of breath, they stopped at a solitary dark small square and hid under the shade of a porch. Juna let the irken go and leaned on his knees, with the heart painfully throbbing in his chest.

- If we continue a few … - And the human took a breath - … blocks further we'll be able to get … into the subway. – He looked around for any suspicious movement among the shadows; he couldn't trust the apparent stillness of the square.

It seemed that they had lost their persecutors and, slowly, Juna relaxed. He felt his eyes and throat lightly sored. During the chaos at the main avenue, he couldn't help to take a deep breath of gas. But he was sure that the gas was mostly inoffensive, though it didn't mean he agreed with the irken's actions. Someone back there had gotten injured in the confusion for sure.

Zim looked at the human wordlessly and then at his hand. The more he tried to settle his thoughts, a bothersome buzz kept him abstracted from the imminent danger and priorities.

- Zim, you overdid with the bombs! Do you know it can …?

Zim knew that the human was speaking, but the gears in his mind they were still clogged. Seeing at his hand, a thought arose like a stormy mountain, lessening any other ideas. The human had taken his hand, only his Holder could do it! The buzz became increasingly intense enough to make him explode.

Intrigued by the irken's silence, Juna turned around. The boy just got to see the irken's fist directly toward his face, having no time to react or to close his eyes. Then, another impact hit his other cheek and the contusion threw him at the ground.

- The fuck, Zim? - The human yelled on the floor.

- Shut up! Shut up! Stinking disgusting human! Never! Never take Zim's hand again! If you do that again I swear that I will skin you with a straw! Who gave you permission to touch Zim? Nobody can take my hand, much less a retard ape like you! Specially you! I am going to cut your hands the next time! I will make mutants rats eat you, starting with the eyes and I will allow GIR to play with your organs!

Juna remained still on the ground, confused by the sudden and violent display of rage. He certainly didn't know much about Zim, much less about his people but it seemed that he had broken some kind of sensitive issue regarding physical contact. Even with this feasible thought, his blood boiled in anger. Who did the irken think he was to treat him like that?

- Miserable moth! You should thank me, if you even know that word! They would have caught us if it wasn't for me! - And he got up with a jump. - No, they would have caught you and I would feel glad about that! I don't know who they are or what they want but I'm not risking my skin for you again!

- Insolent fetid slug! Do you think I need you to defend myself? Not even your grandparents were born when I was in the battlefields, devastating entire planets! Zim doesn't need anyone! No one!

- You are mad and, above all, you are an ass! You know something, Zim? Stick your pride where …!

A beep distracted Zim. Hurriedly, he pushed Juna at the back of the porch and covered his mouth. The human struggled but noticed the increasing anxiety of the irken, instinctively he sensed the danger and he remained silent, as Zim did.

The mobile panels of Zim's pak began to glow and, suddenly, the light of the lanterns became blinking with a strange change of colors.

At the other side of the square, a shadow appeared, it stayed still at its spot and then it walk furtively, exploring the surroundings. Juna knew the dark porch was not enough to hide them, but in several times the stranger passed his sight toward their direction without detecting them. Juna could only guess the irken's pak was doing something to cover them up.

Juna and Zim held their breath until the shadow left as sneaky as it appeared. Then, both boys sighed relieved. Zim pushed him away and the lights recovered their normal color.

Through his pak, Zim verified it was safe to leave their cover. The irken signatures had gone away 'til they were out of the perception range.

- Let's go. – He commanded and got out of there, forgetting about the previous incident and focused only on the immediate danger. Obediently, Juna followed him closely. - Were you saying something about a subway? – Juna nodded.

Then a tumultuous group approached from the other side of the square, startling the boys. Zedec lead the group. Juna and he saw each other an instant. Confused, Zim noticed Juna's sudden pallor and knew the pursuit had not finished.

- There he is! Go! – Zedec exclaimed, pointing at Juna and the guards around him obeyed.

- Run! - The boy shouted in panic and fleet, surprising Zim.

Zim followed the human closely, recognizing the uniforms: the Membrane body guard. For Zim, they were an annoyance more than a threat but, even so, he couldn't face them in his current condition.

The irken forgot about it, running along the human, convinced they would lose them and tried to focus on the most important issue there.

The war had reached the Earth.

…

*Rises from the deeps*

Thanks a lot for your comments and to those people who are following the story. It cheers me up and makes me happy to keep going.

In the last chapter I said I would have the chapter done by December and, actually, destiny showed me how wrong I was. December was one of the worst months I've ever had in a long time. But, at last I finish it. God, how long it is! Where did twenty eight pages come from?

'Til now, this has been my favorite chapter, now I start to reveal more information about the characters, add some more mystery, more questions than answers. I hope you like it and find yourself eager to read the next one :3

We are just two chapters away from Remembrances, now! Perversions here I go! XD I'm gonna hurry up with the forth chapter, I'll o my best to have it done by april at most. At least I have a good part already written so I just need some time and quietness for that TwT

Enjoy this spring and be nice!

Raga :p


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